NEBE Finalizing Groundwork for Holding General Election

 Addis Abeba October 15/2020 (ENA) The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) said it has finalized most of the groundwork for the conduct of free and democratic general election by finalizing operational works and meeting material requirements.

The board has been undertaking various kinds of preparation that would help it to effectively hold the election.

“We are undertaking preparations that would help us to hold free and democratic election according to the directives we receive from the House of People's Representatives,” NEBE Communication Advisor, Soliana Shemelis said.

According to her, about 90 percent of the preparation is finalized and the board will carry out  the rest 10 percent till the day of election.

The 90 percent preparation includes preparation of ballot boxes and voter registration forms in five languages as well as close to 51,000 polling stations.

“We are working on two main things right now,” Soliana said, adding that “the first one is connected with operational works. This includes preparations that we could conduct the election under the COVID-19 situation. The second one is preparing materials needed for election and distributing them to polling stations.”

The board has  readied over 50,000 tablets that help to collect information on the polling stations.

The communication advisor said the tablets will make the election fully digitized so that the election can be transparent and accountable.

The National Electoral Board has registered 78 parties that contend in the election, and more than 50 million are expected to cast their votes.