ADDIS ABABA – House of Peoples’ Representatives yesterday approved the proposal to provide a constitutional interpretation on three articles of the constitution in relation to the postponement of the 2020 election due to COVID-19 pandemic.
In its 3rd special meeting, the House approved a proposed constitutional interpretation of three articles – article 54(1), article 58(3), and article 93 of the Constitution – which was presented by the
House Legal, Justice and Democracy Affairs Standing Committee with majority voting in favor, and 25 voting against it.
On the occasion, Abebe Godebo, Standing Committee’s Acting Chairperson, stated that art 54(1) stipulates that members of the House of Peoples’ Representatives shall be elected by the people for a term of five years; and art 58(3) also stipulates that members of the House shall be elected for a term of five years and elections for a new House shall be concluded one month prior to the expiry of the House’s term. “However, these articles assume regular and normal conditions.”
He also said; given the constitution does not provide a clear answer to what happens to both Houses and the Executive body when their tenure expires and it is not possible to hold election due to State of Emergency, it is safe to say that it has a gap in solving the problem at hand.
During the session, hot discussion broke out between the MPs on the need of involving other political parties, and on the need of having a constitutional interpretation on the aforementioned three articles, where the relevance of the Committee’s resolution on constitutional interpretation was explained.
As it can be recalled, the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia postponed parliamentary election slated to be held on August due the pandemic, and the House in its 15th regular meeting referred the motion to the Standing Committee to come up with a resolution.
Abebe said that the Committee accepted the assignment and offered an alternative solution which does not conflict with the constitution.
Meanwhile, on the same day, the House approved six other loan agreements in its 3rd special meeting, it was learnt.
The Ethiopian Herald May 6/2020
BY ABDUREZAK MOHAMMED
