News: Ahead of polls, Electoral Board admits lower level gov’t officials interference in polling station, calls for restraint By Bileh Jelan Addis Abeba, May, 22/2021 – The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) issued a statement, where it announced measures taken to limit interference of government officials in the voter registrations process as well as to ensure the transparency of the process by making records available to the public. The statement read discussing the interference of what it called low government officials, “The National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) has been conducting activities of the 6th General Election, completed voter registration, and made voter registration records open to the public. Although the voter registration process has almost been completed successfully, the Board has been notifying concerned parties in various ways about the interference of low-level government officials (especially woreda, kebele, etc.).” The statement continued detailing steps taken by the board, “Recently, the Board visited the polling stations to monitor the registration process, followed up with grievances received through its call center, and deployed a monitoring team to review the registration process. Accordingly, the Board noted that low-level government officials intervened at polling stations without obtaining party agent identification, requesting information from polling station workers, and in some cases tried to see the voter register and obtain information.”