Ethiopia’s upper house speaker, Keria Ibrahim has announced her resignation from the office on Tuesday.
The resignation is a result of an apparent protest at the postponement of planned elections in the most populous country in the Horn of Africa.
The electoral commission rescheduled parliamentary and presidential elections slated for August earlier this due to the coronavirus outbreak without giving a new date for the democratic exercise.
Mrs. Ibrahim is a top official in Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), one of the country’s major political parties that have opposed the postponement.
She accused PM Abiy Ahmed government of taking away Ethiopians’ sovereign rights.
“I can’t be an accomplice when the constitution is being violated, and a dictatorial government is being formed,” she said. “I have resigned not to be collaborator [with] such a historical mistake.”
Since taking office in April last year, the Nobel Peace laureate has taken a series of political reforms allowing greater freedoms in what had long been one of the continent’s most repressive states.
