It might be argued that Ethiopia’s parliament has an inherent emergency power to postpone an election, but that would be overextending the logic of inherent power. What is imagined here, however, is postponement for a brief period, so it is not pertinent to the Ethiopian case. Another idea would be to agree that, at the end of the transition period, a caretaker administration would be formed to hold power during the run-up to elections. The only difference would be suspension for a finite period of the single constitutional requirement for elections every five years. If a reasonable percentage of this proposal can be accomplished during a transition period, then it would be worth postponing the 2020 vote.

Source: Ethiopian News October 20, 2019 14:48 UTC