Ethiopian elections postponed
Publish date: 15 June 2020
Issue Number: 877
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Covid-19 crisis
Ethiopia’s upper house of Parliament has agreed to extend Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s term in office beyond October because elections have been delayed due to the pandemic. Polls were due to be held in August – the first since the Nobel laureate came to power in 2018. BBC News reports that the nine regional governments have also had their terms extended in a binding ruling by the House of Federation. It said elections would be held within nine months to a year of the Covid-19 threat subsiding.
DRC Nobel laureate Denis Mukwege has resigned as head of a coronavirus taskforce, citing ‘organisational problems, outpaced strategy and slow testing’. The gynaecologist was appointed in March to lead a committee in the South Kivu Province. A report on the News24 site notes that he said there had been ‘weaknesses in organisation and clarity between the various teams in charge of the response to the pandemic in South Kivu’. ‘We are at the start of an exponential ... curve (in infections) and we can no longer apply a strategy that would be purely preventive,’ Mukwege said. He said he would focus on his medical duties and to treat the influx of patients in hospital.
Zimbabwe is withholding travel documents for thousands of returning nationals, following reports that some have escaped from isolation centres. The government says this will ensure they remain in quarantine centres and help stop the spread of Covid-19. Cabinet agreed that identification or travel documents will be collected from returnees on arrival (and returned to them) at the end of the quarantine period,’ said Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa. The East African reports that Agnes Mahomva, the head of Zimbabwe's Covid-19 response unit, said those escaping from quarantine centres have become a security concern. ‘Every effort is being made to follow up on those who escape. If they are found guilty, they will be penalised accordingly,’ she said. Thousands of Zimbabweans around the world are expected to return home after losing their sources of income abroad.
