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Ethiopia Says National Election to Be Held in June

Reuters

   ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA - Ethiopia will hold a parliamentary election on
   June 5, the electoral board said Friday, as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed
   seeks to quell political and ethnic violence in several regions.

   Abiy's Prosperity Party, a pan-Ethiopian movement he founded a year
   ago, faces challenges from increasingly strident ethnically based
   parties seeking more power for their regions.

   Africa's second most populous nation has a federal system with 10
   regional governments, many of which have boundary disputes with
   neighboring areas or face low-level unrest.

   In the northern Tigray region, thousands of people are believed to have
   died and 950,000 have fled their homes since fighting between regional
   and federal forces erupted on November 4. Tigray held its own elections
   in September in defiance of the federal government, which declared the
   polls illegal.

   The National Electoral Board said next year's calendar for polls did
   not include an election in Tigray. It said the date for a Tigray vote
   would be set once an interim government, which was established during
   the conflict, opened election offices.

   The national vote was postponed from August this year because of the
   coronavirus crisis. The head of the winning party becomes prime
   minister.

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