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Former members of Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)
are on the verge of setting up a new political party
with a platform of sustaining the supposedly lacking
real democracy to Ethiopia and protecting the
sovereignty of the country. Recovering the Port of
Asseb also lies at the top of its agenda.
Gebru Asrat, the former central committee member of
the TPLF and previous president of the Tigray
Regional State, is the coordinator of the new
opposition party, which applied for a legal
certificate from the National Electoral Board (NEB)
in January 2007. It, however, did not receive the
green light from the NEB, whose term had expired.
“The term of the NEB, which would evaluate of the
application document, had expired on November 8,
2007, and there is no such board now,” an official
from the NEB management told Fortune.
Based in the Tigray Regional State, the latest
political party has secured the membership of 3,000
individuals, according to Gebru. Though the party
currently has a regional basis, there are plans to
gradually shift it to a national political party.
Gebru attributes the formation at the present to a
long process evaluating the optimal time and
conditions under which to create a new party.
“We have evaluated the
political climate and history for the past six years
and have determined that people are now ready for a
new political player,” Gebru told
Fortune.
Lidetu Ayalew, president of EDUP-Medhin, is
optimistic about the emergence of this new party.
“It would bring a multi-party way of thinking in
regions like Tigray where the ruling party
predominantly won in the May 2005 election,” said
Lidetu.
There are over 180 political parties established in
Ethiopia to date, the majority being regionally
based.
This party, however, is unique in that it was
established by high-profile former prominent members
of TPLF, one of the four parties constituting the
Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).
These key members that are 10 in number detached
themselves from their previous party in an
irreconcilable ideological difference that created a
disagreement amongst TPLF in 2001. Seven of the 10
dropouts are actively working for the new party’s
founding while the rest are supporting the party
logistically and financially.
Born in Mekele in the northern Tigray, Gebru Asrat
was a member of TPLF since 1979. He had also served
as the President of the Tigray Regional State. He
studied history and geography at Addis Abeba
University (AAU) before he left to join the forces
of TPLF after two years in 1974. Failing to agree
with other members of the Front over the legitimacy
of the war with Eritrea, he left the TPLF in 2001.
Gebru now claims the democratic rights which the
constitution bestow citizens are not totally and
properly implemented. According to him, the new
party would struggle to see its effective
implementation.
An anonymous political analyst from AAU stressed his
hopes that this would create a situation where
people begin to see other options than upholding a
single party as is the case in Tigray. In his
opinionated view, he said that these people began
activities of establishing a political party
considering the experiences that were demonstrated
during and after the May 2005 election, which showed
that it is indeed possible to defeat the ruling
party in casting ballots.
“They did not even imagine that the EPRDF would
loose that number of voters in the election,”
according to the analyst.
When TPLF splintered by a difference in ideology in
2001, Tewolde Woldemariam, Siye Abraha, Abay Tsehaye,
Gebru Asrat, Alemseged Gebreamlak, Aregash Adane,
Awelom Woldu, Gebremeskel Hailu, Hasen Shifa,
Solomon Tesfay, Abreha Kahsay and Belay Bitew were
the 12 members who abandoned the front.
However, having reconsidered the wisdom of their
thinking, Abay Tsehaye, whose real name is Amha
Tsehaye, and Hasen Shifa turned back and rejoined
TPLF while seven of the remaining are now acting to
establish this political party whose formation is
pending. This has sparked an enthusiastic reaction
from some members of Parliament.
Merera Gudina (PhD), chairman of Union of Ethiopian
Democratic Forces (UEDF), told Fortune that
it is phenomenal to see these people join the
opposition camp.
“It shows that TPLF brought virtue neither to the
people of Tigray nor to the nation in general, and
it is to the advantage of the country that the
former veteran fighters indulged themselves in
partisan affairs,” claims Merera.
Berhane Kidanemariam, member of the central
committee of TPLF and general manager of Walta
Information Centre, told Fortune that it does
not hurt to see a new political party become a
reality as far as they respect the constitution and
the laws of the land.
The EPRDF and opposition political parties nominated
and presented 24 prospective members of the NEB two
weeks ago to the Prime Minister Meles Zenawi who is
expected to present nine nominees to Parliament and
approve the nomination this coming week.
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