NEBE Chairman Outlines Final Preparations for Election Day

11 May 2005

The chairman of the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), Kemal Bedri, today outlined details of preparations for the federal and regional elections to be held on 15 May 2005.

He said polling materials have already been dispatched and election officials recently received training on new procedures on voting, counting and publicising results. Various complaints submitted by the political parties were investigated and the findings submitted to the Board of the NEBE.

Kemal said 319 international observers have been accredited by the NEBE as well as 463 domestic observers, mainly from church groups. More international observers, mostly from embassies, will be accredited in the coming days, he told journalists at a press briefing in NEBE headquarters.

The chairman also called on parties to have a peaceful campaign in the remaining hours before the moratorium on campaign activities takes effect, at 6a.m. on Friday 13 May 2005.

“We have always called on them to have a peaceful campaign and it has been really peaceful in balance. The rallies that took place in Meskel Square in the capital last weekend are a testimony to that,” Kemal said, in reply to journalists’ questions.

Kemal detailed the procedures for counting and announcing results, which he said were part of a public process. Provisional results should be announced by 21 May 2005, with the formal announcement of results by the Board on 8 June 2005, the chairman added.

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