Ethiopia postpones general election during COVID-19 outbreak News
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Ethiopia postpones general election during COVID-19 outbreak

The National Election Board of Ethiopia announced Tuesday that it would postpone Ethiopia’s upcoming general election amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The board had planned to conduct the election in August.

The planned elections marked a transition towards democratic stability in Ethiopia. Ethiopia experienced a period of ethnic tension and unrest throughout 2016 and 2017. The country declared a state of emergency in 2016 after clashes between protesters and the Ethiopian government left an estimated 500 citizens dead. The UN condemned these killings in 2016.

In 2017 citizens from the Oromia region demanded the release of political prisoners from the Ethiopian government. Under the guidance of prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn, authorities arrested an estimated 26,000 citizens as political prisoners in response to protests. Under continued pressure, Desalegn resigned in April of 2018. Abiy Ahmed filled the prime minister role in Desalegn’s vacancy.

The UN praised Abiy Ahmed for his reforms favoring human rights. Under Ahmed’s leadership, the country has granted new rights to refugees and passed laws punishing discrimination and hate speech.

The postponed August election would have been the country’s first referendum on Ahmed’s prime minister role and a move towards democratic cooperation after years of authoritarian policies.

For more on COVID-19, see our special coverage.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.