Administrative Structure

Establishment and Structure of NEBE The Board

The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) consists of two components: the National Electoral Board and the Secretariat.

The Board

The Board is composed of nine members and they are appointed by the House of Peoples Representatives in consultation with political parties who have seats in the parliament, upon recommendation by the Prime Minister. The Board consists of a Chairman, a Deputy Chairman and seven members. The Chief Executive of the NEBE is a non-voting member and secretary of the Board. Article 6 of Proclamation No. 532 requires the composition of the Board to reflect considerations of gender, national contribution and legal profession. The Board is a policy-making and oversight body, responsible for the overall supervision and regulation of the process of the elections. It is responsible for the preparation, organization and the adoption of all necessary measures to ensure the freedom and fairness of the elections.

The mandate of NEBE include establishment of the legal, regulatory and operational framework for the conduct of free, fair and peaceful election including the use of public media by political parties, Supervision of the NEBE in the organization and conduct of the elections; recognize and register political parties, registration of parties and candidates for election; establishment and conduct of Joint Political Forum, deciding or referring complaints, disputes, and challenges; inviting national electoral observers, as it deems appropriate, and overseeing that elections are conducted in a free and fair manner and accordingly certifying, announcing, and facilitating the implementation of, election results, as well as facilitating any transfer of power.

The Secretariat

The Secretariat is the operational branch of NEBE. The Secretariat is headed by the Chief Executive and is responsible for all activities relating to the preparation and conduct of the electoral process. The Secretariat has a structure organized at the headquarters and at permanent and temporary branch offices from federal down to polling station level. Each office is responsible for the planning and administration of the process at its respective level, following the directives and guidelines prepared by the Head Office. The Head Office located in Addis Ababa, the Chief Executive has two Deputy Chief Executives: a Deputy Chief Executive responsible for Organizational Support and a Deputy Chief Executive responsible for Services and Relations.

• Chief Executive. The Chief Executive of the Secretariat is the secretariat of NEBE and directs the Secretariat as its Chief Executive. She/ he develops all plans, budgets, election timetables and manage the day-to-day activities of the Secretariat. She/ he causes all decisions of the Board to be transmitted to all relevant parties, including the Secretariat, and forwards to the Board all plans, timetables, periodic reports and matters requiring decisions of the Board. In addition, to managing the Secretariat through the two Deputy Chief Executives, she/ he also supervise the Monitoring, Research and Development, the Auditing and the Women’s Affairs units of the NEBE.

• Organizational Support. The Organizational Support division is responsible for ensuring that effective and efficient administrative, legal, training and information technology support is provided to the NEBE for its day-to-day running and for the successful implementation of all electoral operations. The Deputy Chief Executive for Organizational Support has overall responsibility for the management and activities of its various units: Administration, Finance, Legal and Complaints, Training and Skills Development and Information and Communications Technology.

• Services and Relations. The Services and Relations division is responsible for developing the general electoral operational and logistics plans, monitoring their implementation in the field and liaising with external groups such as political parties, civil society organizations, the voting population (through civic and voter education) and the media. The Deputy Chief Executive for Services and Relations has overall responsibility and oversees the strategies and activities of its various units: Civic and Voter Education, Political Parties and Candidates registration, Logistics, Press, Information and External Relations, Operations and Field Coordination and Branch Offices through Operations and Field Coordination departments.

• Operations and Field Coordination. The Secretariat provides assistance to, and oversees, the work of the various branch offices through the operations and field coordination unit. In this context, the operations and field coordination unit, working in close cooperation with the field offices, will provide support in ensuring all activities comply with NEBE directives, procedures, operational plans and timelines.

• Regional Branch Offices. The Board has established 11 permanent Regional Branch Offices, one in each State of the Federation or in each of the Federal Cities, Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa. The Head of the Regional Branch Office, who reports to the Chief Executive through the Deputy Chief Executive (Services and Relations), is responsible for the planning and administration of the process at the regional level, following the regulations and directives prepared by the national headquarters. Other staffs at the regional level include administration, planning, training, information and public education officers.

• Constituency Offices. The Board established a temporary Constituency Office with a three member Election Execution Committee, headed by the Chief Electoral Officer of the constituency, for each constituency at each election. The Election Execution Committee is responsible for the overall supervision of the election in the constituency, for registering candidates, consolidating votes collected from polling stations and announcing result at that level. A constituency represents one sit in the house of peoples Representatives /parliament/. There are 547 sits in the house of people’s representatives.

• Polling stations. Register voters, enact the voting, count votes and send the voting results to the constituency offices. There are around 43,500 polling stations in the country, however the number is not constant because of the growing number of voters. A polling station is organized for 1000 voters assumed. The increase in the number of polling stations does not increase the number of constituencies.