(Mar 04, ( Reuters))--On Friday, the House of People’s Representatives held an emergency session on state of emergency legislation imposed on Feb. 16, a day after Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn’s surprise resignation.
The state-run Ethiopian News Agency said on Friday that 395 lawmakers voted in favour of the bill, putting the government comfortably within the two-thirds majority needed to validate the state of emergency, which bans demonstrations and restricts publications that could incite violence.
But footage made public by the privately-owned Addis Standard news website showed parliamentary speaker Abadula Gemeda stating at the end of the session that 346 parliamentarians had voted in favour.
Abadula also appeared to have made a mathematical mistake, saying 339 was the required two-thirds of 539 seats. In fact, a vote of 346 would be below the threshold needed if the two-thirds rule applied to the total number of seats, rather than the number of parliamentarians present.
It was not clear from the constitution how the two-thirds rule was meant to be applied. The discrepancies sparked claims of vote fraud from the opposition. Red more from Reuters »
The state-run Ethiopian News Agency said on Friday that 395 lawmakers voted in favour of the bill, putting the government comfortably within the two-thirds majority needed to validate the state of emergency, which bans demonstrations and restricts publications that could incite violence.
But footage made public by the privately-owned Addis Standard news website showed parliamentary speaker Abadula Gemeda stating at the end of the session that 346 parliamentarians had voted in favour.
Abadula also appeared to have made a mathematical mistake, saying 339 was the required two-thirds of 539 seats. In fact, a vote of 346 would be below the threshold needed if the two-thirds rule applied to the total number of seats, rather than the number of parliamentarians present.
It was not clear from the constitution how the two-thirds rule was meant to be applied. The discrepancies sparked claims of vote fraud from the opposition. Red more from Reuters »
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