Ethiopia: News - Eleven Zones, Six Special Woredas in Ethiopia's Southern State Undergo Major Restructuring to Create Two More Regional States

2 August 2022
Addis Standard (Addis Ababa)

Addis Abeba — The local councils of several Zones and special districts in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's (SNNP) regional state have passed resolutions to restructure a merger in order to create two more regional states, bringing the number of new regional states out of the SNNP into four.

Over the last weekend, local council members of six zones in SNNP, namely: Konso, Gedeo, Gamo, Gofa, South Omo, and Wolayta zones as well as the local council members of five special Woredas, namely Amaro, Ale, Basketo, Burji and Derashe have voted to restructure their administrative units into a newly organized regional state.

Similarly, local council members of the Gurage, Hadiya, Halaba, Kembata Tmbaro and Silte zones, as well as the Yem Special Woreda have voted to restructure their respective administrative units alongside that of the zones to form a new regional state.

The combined restructuring of the zones and special woredas means following a referendum in each of the respective zones and special Woredas, the SNNP regional state will get two more new regional states.

The government of the SNNP regional state praised the decision by the eleven zones and the six special woreds as "mature decisions".

A referendum by the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) held on 23 November 2019 in which more than 2.3 million registered voters, cast their votes in 1,692 polling stations was the first such referendum that saw the creation of a new Sidama regional state out of the SNNP region. Two years later, in October 2021, five zones and one special wereda comprising Kaffa, Sheka, Bench Sheko, Dawuro and West Omo Zones, and Konta Special woreda held a referendum to merge and create a new regional state, Southwest Ethiopia People's Regional State, becoming the second new regional state out of SNNP region.

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