Ethiopian Review

Addis Ababa –The House of Peoples’ Representatives on Thursday endorsed one bill and held discussions as to how the government shall provide financial assistance to political parties.

In its 36th regular meeting of its fourth year term, the House endorsed with majority vote the bill for loan agreement signed between Ethiopia and India that enables the former to obtain 640 million US dollars meant for the development of national sugar industry.

As per the agreement, the stated amount of loan with an interest rate of 1.7 percent will be reimbursed in the next 20 years.

The parliament endorsed the new bill after holding thorough discussions on the recommendation of its Trade and Industry Affairs Standing Committee.

Meanwhile, the House conferred as to how the government shall provide financial assistance to political parties, which was a new motion of the EDP-Medihin presented to the parliament in connection with the day of opposition political parties.

According to the motion, the government shall provide assistance to political parties since the money collected from party members and local supporters remains insufficient run the activities and management of opposition political parties.

The ruling party and opposition political parties have already agreed on the need to provide special financial assistance to political parties and a new bill for registration of political parties was endorsed in Sep 2008 for the same purpose, according to the motion.

Responding to the motion, government’s whips with the House said the bill that permits special financial assistance to political parties with seats in the regional and federal councils will be put into force as soon as the new guideline of the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), which is in pipeline, gets finalized.

According to the whips, NEBE is finalizing the guideline under discussion.

-ENA