ADDIS ABABA (IRIN) – Federal elections in one of Ethiopia’s nine regions are to be delayed until several months after the rest of the country has voted, officials said on Thursday.

Tesfaye Mengesha, deputy head of the country’s National Election Board, said the postponement of the polls in the Somali Region was due to the nomadic nature of the population and scarce resources. But the move has been criticised by some opposition groups, who called for the entire elections to be delayed while “proper preparations” are put in place.

“This is unacceptable,” said Beyene Petros, vice chairman of the 14-party opposition coalition group, the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces.

“We can see room for irregularities like double voting as people from certain parts of the country move to other areas,” he said. “The proper preparations are not there so we think the elections should be postponed.”

Somali Region in eastern Ethiopia has a population of around 3.4 million people, many of whom are nomadic herders who travel vast distances with their animals. It also shares a 1,600 km border with Somalia. An estimated 1.8 million people in the region are expected to vote.

Tesfaye said while the election was scheduled for 15 May, the polls in Somali region were likely to take place in July or August. He emphasised that the results from the rest of the country where more than 38 million people are expected to vote would be announced as scheduled on 8 June.

“Most of the people are nomadic and not settled so we have to use a mobile registration system and to apply this system we have to use huge manpower and many vehicles,” he said. “We have to finish the election process in the rest of the country and transfer the resources to Somali Region.”

Tesfaye added: “It is because of our capacity. We have no manpower. We do not have sufficient vehicles.”

The delay also caused some surprise within the international community, which is monitoring the election process and has pledged US $7
million.

The Ethiopian government has already invited election observers from Russia, China, Japan and the European Union to monitor polling. One western diplomat told IRIN: “We will be raising this with the National Election Board.”

Ethiopia’s legislative branch consists of a bicameral parliament: the 110-seat House of the Federation and the 547-seat lower chamber, the House of People’s Representatives. The general elections would be only the third democratic ballot in the country’s history.