Parliament endorses constitutional interpretation option for national election

May 05, 2020; Addis Ababa: The 3^rd special sitting of the HoPRs endorsed the constitutional interpretation resolution among the four options presented to the House last week via the National Election Board, by a majority vote and 25 objection, today.

The Legal, Justice and Democracy Affairs Standing Committee of the House was requested to resolve the deadlock with a constitutional background and hence, the committee forwarded the constitutional interpretation as the best solution for the House.

His honor Abebe Gedebo, Chairperson of the Legal, Justice and Democracy Affairs Sub-committee presented the outcome of the scrutiny to the House. During then he said, the committee decided to take on the constitutional interpretation option as the most viable one, without trespassing the decrees of the constitution in order to combat the consequences of the #COVID-19 pandemic to the full scale.

Participant members of the HoPRs forwarded questions and comments to the presenter for further elaboration. The presenter dealt with all of them based-upon the scrutiny conducted by the Standing Committee mentioned above. Some of the questions and comments were:

• “The standing committee trespassed rules of procedures and members’ code of conduct regulation by solely dealing with the case and avoiding the participation of stakeholders and rival political parties”.
• “The best option is political solution because the recommended solution violates the constitution and could impose a clear danger to the state”.
• “We shall remember the resolutions passed on the national population and housing census proclamation, lease proclamation and most importantly; the decision made upon legal benefits of the late former President, Negasso Gidada (PhD), clearly against the constitution. It is just hypocrisy to act in favour of the constitution, this time”.
• “Unless otherwise you claim you are not part of the national case of the nation as an Ex-Major General ranked military officer disclosed it recently that he has never struggled for Ethiopia, it becomes a difficult stand of you to favour the ‘now-election’ tendency while the pandemic has posed a clear and present danger”. This one was in favour of the resolution.

The presenter, after pointing-out the political solution’s contradiction to the constitution elaborated; the constitutional interpretation resolution never stands against the constitution and has support of other decrees from the constitution itself.

The special sitting of the House, apart from the issues of the trending hot-cake, dealt with other concerns as well. The House unanimously agreed-upon of the loan agreement between Ethiopia and the Japan International Cooperation Agency, considered as proclamation 1197/2012, on the second reading level, for financing the Jimma-Chidda-Soddo road upgrading project.

The House also unanimously ratified the second reading proclamation 1198/2012 between the FDRE and the Republic of Italy, which is intended for financing the development goals of the health sector.

The loan agreement second reading proclamation 1199/2012 between partners mentioned in the preceding paragraph for financing the skills improvement and job creation programs of technical and vocational training aspects of Ethiopia is also endorsed with full consent of the MPs.

Two second reading proclamations, numbered 1200/2012 and 1201/2012 respectively, between the FDRE and the Export-Import Bank of Korea, intended for financing the light-rail transit of Addis Ababa city and the cadastre information system of the country, unanimously.

The House finally endorsed the second reading proclamation 1202/2012 with one abstain and the consent of all the remaining members, between Ethiopia and Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development of the United Arab Emirates for the sake of providing loan money to the small and medium level enterprises of Ethiopia.

By Simeneh Sifared          Translated by Asrat Addisu

      House reporter                                              House writer