Birtukan Mideska, the head of Ethiopia’s electoral board has announced her resignation.
Mideska had in a Facebook post she shared on Monday, June 26, cited ill health as the reason for her resignation.
However, as at the time of writing this report, the parliament is still yet to accept Mideska’s resignation.
The soon-to-be former head of Ethiopia’s electoral board has been a judge and political prisoner, and her nomination over four years ago was part of the rehabilitation measures introduced by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s new government in 2018 to end the authoritarian rule in the country:
According to reports, PM Ahmed had recommended Ms Birtukan to the post of the electoral board chairperson because according to him, Birtukan wasn’t someone to “ever surrender, even to the government”.
Prior to Birtukan tendering her resignation letter, she had presided over the board that had been embroiled in controversy, over the postponement of elections that had been scheduled to hold in May 2020 due to the Covid pandemic.
The election was eventually held in 2021, across the country, in battle-torn Tigray.
Let’s recall that earlier this year, Meaza Ashenafi had resigned from her position as the Head of the Ethiopian Supreme Court after being appointed in 2018.
Could these resignations be harmless and merely due to the aforementioned reasons or are things much more than they seem in the country?
Regardless, Mideska’s resignation is very commendable considering Africa’s history of presidents and people in power holding on to power long after their tenure would have expired.
