Ethiopia’s electoral board extends voter’s registration by five days
-Opposition ask for at least 15 days extension
By Dereje Berhanu
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia- The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) has announced that it would extend voters’ registration for more five days.  NEBE spokesperson, Mr. Mohamed Abdurrahman, told SSI: “The registration days were extended after many political parties requested the board to extend. The board has been gone under its program to give a chance to potential voters”.

According to the board the registration has been planned to have been completed on February 17th, 2010, but was extended, so the end of registration will be February 22nd.

“The board had registered 27 million voters until February 14th, excluding the Somali regional state and military camps, and the board expected 32 million voters to register. It shows the registration process has been going on the plane”.

The chair of the main opposition group, Forum for Democratic Dialogue in Ethiopia, Dr. Merera Gudina said, voter’s registration should be extended by at least 15 days. According to the opposition leader many potential voters have not been registered, especially in areas where the ruling party expects to loose in the election. In the same areas only 40-50 percent of potential voters were registered in Welega area of the Oromia state.

Dr. Merera believes NEBE is biased to towards the opposition.

According to the NEBE as of February 17th 2010, 57 parties have registered their1591 candidates for parliament, 3363 candidates were registered for regional council seats, and 37 independents were listed for parliament and 11 for regional council seats. The country will vote in May this year for a new 548-seat parliament - the House of People's Representatives - and regional councils excluding Addis Ababa city administration.

On the other news NEBE started allocating campaign finance subsidies to all political parties- 65 percent thus far from the allotted budget. NEBE’s party financing budget amounts to seven million Birr, which had been agreed by the political parties.