By Giulia Paravicini
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopias northern Tigray region is holding elections on Wednesday in defiance of a federal edict that the polls are illegal, intensifying a confrontation between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and politicians who dominated the previous administration.
The vote will go ahead as planned, and we do not expect the federal government to interfere, Muluwork Kidanemariam, the head of the regional election commission, told Reuters by phone on Tuesday evening.
Ethiopias upper house, which mediates constitutional disputes, ruled on Saturday that the polls for regional parliaments and other positions were unconstitutional. Ethiopia had been due to hold national and regional elections in August but postponed them because of the coronavirus pandemic. [USKBN25W0SA]
Tigrays defiance of the federal government is the latest headache for Abiy, who is struggling to hold together a federation that stitches Ethiopias 80 plus ethnic groups into Africas second-largest nation.
After decades of repression, he ushered in democratic reforms that helped win him the Nobel Prize. But the new freedoms also fuelled long-suppressed demands for more regional autonomy, rights and resources.
In the past three years, Ethiopia has faced multiple bouts of outbreaks of large-scale ethnic violence, what the government described as an attempt at a regional coup led by rogue security forces, and increasingly insistent demands from smaller ethnic groups for their own regions.
Tigray has dominated Ethiopian politics since guerilla fighters ousted a Marxist dictator in 1991. Its population is relatively small – around 5% of Ethiopias 109 million people – but its history in politics means it is wealthier and more influential than many other, larger regions.
On Monday Ethiopian security officials prevented a dozen people, including four journalists and a senior think tank analyst, from flying to Tigray to cover the vote. [USKBN25Y156]
Abiy has not specified how he will respond to the polls, although he has ruled out using force. Analysts say the government cut the regions federal funding, which supplies around half of its budget.read more
Ethiopia’s Tigray holding regional elections in defiance of federal government – Reuters Africa
