Ra’yi(Opinion)

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Africom’s casualty reports in Somalia welcome but long overdue-Amnesty International 45 Shares facebook sharing button SAfricom’s casualty reports in Somalia welcome but long overdue-Amnesty International 45 Shares facebook sharing button SAfricom’s casualty reports in Somalia welcome but long overdue-Amnesty International 45 Shares facebook sharing button Svv

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Thursday April 2, 2020 MOGADISHU (HOL) - The campaign group Amnesty International has welcomed the announcement…

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A worker of the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) measures an airport staff member’s temperature at a control point at the Bole International Airport, in Addis Ababa, on March 17, 2020. | Photo Credit: AFP A worker of the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) measures an airport staff member’s temperature at a control point at the Bole International Airport, in Addis Ababa, on March 17, 2020. | Photo Credit: AFP Ethiopia’s Election Commission announced Tuesday that general elections due in August would be delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic, in a setback for the country’s fragile democratic transition. No new timeline was given for the vote, which Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed — last year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate — hopes will give him a mandate for sweeping political and economic reforms. “Because of issues related to the coronavirus, the board has decided it can’t conduct the election as planned…so it has decided to void that calendar and suspend all activities,” the poll body said in a statement It said a new date would be given “when the pandemic is over”. Ethiopia has recorded 26 cases of COVID-19 and federal and regional officials have introduced a range of measures intended to curb its spread, including banning large gatherings and restricting travel. These measures would have prevented the timely completion of activities like voter registration and the recruitment and training of observers, the election board said. Mr. Abiy was appointed Prime Minister in 2018 after several years of anti-government protests. He rose through the ranks of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) ruling coalition, which dominated Parliament and allowed only one competitive election after it took power in the early 1990s, which was in 2005. The EPRDF and its allies won all 547 seats in Parliament in 2015. However, the coalition no longer exists following Mr. Abiy’s decision to transform it into a single political group, the Ethiopian Prosperity Party. Path forward uncertainWell before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, opposition parties and analysts had voiced concern that the election board’s preparations were behind schedule. The scheduled date of August 29 had also been a point of contention because it falls at the height of the rainy season. Yet election officials had previously said they could not delay the vote because the constitutional mandates of lawmakers expire in October. It was not immediately clear how officials intended to address that problem should the coronavirus pandemic push elections into late 2020 or even 2021. Mr. Abiy’s rule has been marred by widespread ethnic violence, and critics accuse him of cracking down on political opponents and other dissenters. Grim security conditions in parts of the country like Wollega, where the military is conducting counterinsurgency operations against a rebel group, have called into question how the government could possibly hold voting there. The delay could potentially give the government space to address major obstacles to a peaceful and credible vote, said William Davison, Ethiopia analyst for the International Crisis Group, a conflict-prevention organisation.

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A worker of the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) measures an airport staff member’s temperature…

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