UN Remarks at the Announcement of the 2021 Ethiopian Election Results

Statement delivered by RC/HC a.i. Ms. Maureen Achieng

• Your Excellencies the Chairperson and Members of the National Elections Board of Ethiopia
• Your Excellencies Members of Government
• Your Excellencies Representatives of Political Parties
• Your Excellencies Members of the Diplomatic Community
• UN Colleagues
• Ladies and Gentlemen

All Protocols Observed

It gives me great pleasure to join you this afternoon. At the outset, I would like to thank our partner, the National Elections Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) for inviting the United Nations to participate in this event, marking the completion of the first round of elections with the announcement of the final certified electoral results. 

It may be recalled that the United Nations established a multiagency electoral assistance project led by UNDP in June 2019. UN Women and IOM are key partners in the project that seeks to “Support Elections for Ethiopia’s Democracy Strengthening,” -- popularly called from its acronym “SEEDS”. The project was established following a request by the Government of Ethiopia in late 2018 and subsequent approval for technical assistance by the UN focal point for elections. The project is supported by 16 international partners as well as the Government of Ethiopia and managed by UNDP.

The SEEDS project was mandated to provide technical and operational support to NEBE in key areas, including but not limited to: operations, logistics, procedures, voter education and ICT. The technical support is provided through international advisors and national experts.

The operational support provided included the procurement of goods and services in a number of areas including: procurement of candidate registration equipment and material, voter registration, polling and counting and tabulation of results materials. SEEDS also helped procure logistics services and warehouse space to support NEBE logistic operations.

While the mandate of the UN in Ethiopia is to provide electoral assistance, and not the  assessment on the electoral process itself, I would like to express the gratitude of the United Nations to NEBE for the constructive partnership throughout the past two years that has enable the SEEDS project to provide assistance to strengthening the capacity of NEBE to implement a transparent and credible electoral process.

I would also like to take this opportunity to express our thanks and appreciation to the European Union and USAID’s technical assistance projects, ECES and IFES, for the constructive partnership and effective coordination throughout this journey. I also wish to thank the many donors who have been very generous in providing the support needed to make the elections a success.

In conclusion we know that while we have concluded the June elections, the electoral process is not yet complete as a number of constituencies are expected to hold elections in September. The United Nations remains committed to support NEBE to ensure the successful completion of the 6th general elections.

The UN also seeks to draw on the lessons learned exercises that will follow to continue to support Ethiopia in its march toward in ensuring a peaceful and inclusive country, and resilient democracy.

I thank you.