What is all this fuss about this? I don't get it. You guys come to the US as refugees, foreigner wearing hijab and run for a senate seat but an Ethiopian who lives in one of the cities in Ethiopia can't run for office? How stupid is that?
The Ethiopian constitution allows anybody to run for office anywhere as long as he/she is a permanent residence in that location for at least 2 years and that he/she speaks the local official language. In the case of Jigjiga, any Ethiopian who lived there for 2 years and speaks Af-Somali, the official language of the state, can run for office. There is no other precondition, not ethnicity nor wearing hijab as some of you are requiring. Wearing hijab? WTF? Ethiopia is a secular state and whether you wear hijab or not is up to you. We have ministers who wear hijab and we have those who don't. And yes, any Somali can do the same thing in Amhara's capital, Bahirdar. That is the law of the land.
If the jigjigans don't like the candidates, they have every right not to vote for them. That is up to the voters. Democracy 101 which most of you here enjoy.