National Chamber Election On Hold

By Dawit Endeshaw

The Ministry of Trade (MoT) has called for a temporary halt of the election to select a board of directors and president of the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce & Sectorial Associations until the regional chambers are able to address the issues raised by their respective town chambers. The ministry made its decision on November 28, 2016.

The controversy stems from the protocol concerning the election of Chamber of Commerce boards on the town and regional levels. More specifically, the election of a BoD and president of Amhara's Regional Chamber was the center of a dispute when the Gonder city chamber appealed to the Ministry of Trade and Amhara Region Industry & Market Development Bureau. The election of directors by the Regional Chamber was conducted before the Gonder and Bahir Dar city chambers conducted their own elections, according to the complaint.

Until the regional chambers address the issues, the Ethiopia Chamber of Commerce & Sectorial Association can not conduct its elections for directors and the president, a senior official from the Ministry told Fortune.

The Gonder city chamber lodged a further complaint, alleging that as a result of the regional election, the Bahir Dar chamber was unlawfully represented by four seats in the general assembly, when it was supposed to be two.

After the issues were raised, then Minister of Trade, Yacob Yalla issued a circular in October informing regional sectorial associations to submit essential documents on how they conducted their elections a month earlier.

"Our city's chamber didn't conduct its election because of the unanticipated unrest that erupted in early July, 2016," said Melaku Azezew (Eng), president of the Gonder City Chamber. Further delays came when the state of emergency was declared.

A Ministry of Trade committee formed to study the disagreements found that there was indeed a violation of protocol and irregularities.

The investigation by the ministry's committee was supported by an ad-hoc committee composed of 18 members of the Ethiopian Chamber.

"The law has to be respected," Solomon Afework, president of the Ethiopian Chamber told Fortune.

"We believe there are people in certain Chambers who manipulated the legal framework and their own bylaws, especially concerning the length of terms," said a senior MoT official, who asked to remain anonymous.

Following the committee's findings, the ministry wrote a letter to the Amhara Trade, Industry & Market Development Bureau asking them to supervise the Chamber election process in the region. The two regional cities - Bahir Dar and Gonder- will conduct their own elections, after which the regional chamber will hold another election.

"The ad-hoc committee is still looking into the matter," said Solomon.

The Ethiopian Chamber has eighteen members including nine regional chambers of commerce and sectoral associations, two city chambers of commerce and sectoral associations, one national chamber of sectoral associations and six sectoral associations organized at the national level.

These and other related problems have deadlocked the proposed election of a Board of Directors for the Ethiopian Chamber and the general assembly meeting. The election was supposed to be conducted in late September 2016. The current board has already completed its term in office.

"The date for general assembly meeting to hold an election hasn't been decided yet," Endalkachew Sime, Secretary General of Ethiopian Chamber told Fortune.

"We did check if the election was conducted in conformity with their own bylaws," added source from the ministry. Read more here