ADDIS ABABA – The Sidama people have voted peacefully on the much-awaited referendum to decide on the Sidama Zone’s quest for statehood yesterday. Reports indicated that the voting process started early in the morning with voters forming long queues at polling stations.
Many waved their voting cards in celebration as they waited to cast their ballots when polling stations opened. According to sources from the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), more than two million people were registered to be able to vote on whether they want their own regional state within Ethiopia’s federal system. Article 39, sub-article 1 of the 1995 Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia states that every nation, nationality or people in Ethiopia shall have the unrestricted right to self determination up to secession.
Though the Sidama, who are part of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ State, have been calling for the exercise of the right to self-determination for the last 27 years, it was only last year that the federal government decided to organize a referendum to answer the quest for statehood as per the constitution.
Shortly after polls opened, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed tweeted: “The Sidama referendum is an expression of the democratization path Ethiopia has set out on. As citizens go out to vote today, I call upon all to engage peacefully throughout the process.”
Sidama voters described the referendum as the achievement of a lifetime and culmination of decades of struggle for autonomy. NEBE said the result will be known today.
The Ethiopian Herald, November 21/2019
BY STAFF REPORTER
