Mesfin Woldemariam (Prof.)      Gizachew Shiferaw (Eng.)              Negasso Gidada (PhD)               Siye Abraha

While the Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ) political party celebrated the welcoming of Siye Abraha, the former defence minister  and Negasso Gidada (PhD), former president into its fold, the life-long dissident, Mesfin Woldemariam (Prof.), who had been kicked out for disciplinary reasons, lurked around to make sure that they had a hard time. 

The meeting they planned for November 29, 2009, had a slight problem from the beginning, and it started with the old professor.

The UDJ applied to the Justice Bureau of the Addis Abeba Administration on November 3, 2009, to get a licence for the intended meeting. That was followed by a counter-application by a group led by Professor Mesfin, which claimed that the meeting was illegal and almost succeeded when Markos Bizuneh, the Demonstration and Meeting Notification Officer at the bureau, complied.

The UDJ took its case to the mayor's office who referred it back to the Justice Bureau, whose head, Tsegaye Hailemariam, and Markos sat down with Gizachew Shiferaw (Eng.) and Hailu Araya (PhD), UDJ vice presidents, for a discussion that led to the meeting being permitted with a guarantee of police protection.

The UDJ paid 3,500 Br to rent the conference room of the Imperial Hotel for a nine-hour meeting with 250 members called from all over the country at a expense of 60,000 Br. Issues to be discussed included improving the party programme and regulation and replacing missing members.

On November 26 the UDJ had a 17,000 Br luncheon at the Ghion Hotel to mark Siye's and Negasso's joining of the party. Siye had said during this party that the party he wanted to join was one that would fight for individual and group rights, but would have appropriate regard for both.

The purpose of the November 29 meeting would be to align the party to Siye's wishes, which was one big reason why Mesfin was mad enough to stop that from happening at any cost. Siye had also said that he had discussed it with the party, following which they had drafted a new programme.

"If this programme is adopted, I will be happy to join the UDJ," Siye said.

"The party has deviated from the principles of its establishment," Mesfin said to Fortune, protesting the extremeness of the programme change to suit one entrant. "Number one, you do not change a party programme just to gain one new member. Second, the Unity was formed on the principle of individual freedom. When individual rights are respected, then group rights will be respected. The new change will force this principle to be violated." 

Mesfin then took matters into his own hands and acted in a manner that might have him criminally charged.

With these points of difference, the UDJ worked on a meeting to approve the new programme, while Mesfin strove to foil it, although the party had announced on September 13 that Mesfin and 20 other people had been removed from party membership. These people, however, want the party to continue giving heed to their voice, according to Tamrat Tarekegn, who used to lead the youth wing of the party.

On November 29, as the UDJ delegates gathered at the Imperial Hotel conference hall on the sixth floor, they found the disgruntled old members waiting for them, determined to make sure that no meeting would take place. They succeeded, too. As the two sides argued, the police watched without interfering, according to Asrat Tassie, UDJ secretary

UDJ top officials Asrat Tassie (left)  and Gizachew Shiferaw (Eng.) (middle), having hard times keeping the party together, led the unsuccessful meet.

The party officials gave up trying to meet at Imperial and took their members to the new party office, rented for 8,000 Br in front of Bambis Supermarket on Jomo Kenyatta Street. The party moved to this office in October after leaving the villa off the road from Bambis to Olympia which they had kept at a monthly rent of 18,000 Br.

Between 2pm and 6pm that afternoon the meeting hall of their smaller villa was jam-packed with 225 of the 250 members, most of whom were standing. They all voted for the membership of both Negasso and Siye, nearly the only thing that meeting achieved that day. These two erstwhile independent politicians were among the 20 that were elected into the council of the party.

Also elected were Bahta Tadesse, a former TPLF member,  and Andualem Aragie, once a member of Lidetu Ayalew's Ethiopian Democratic Party, who succeeded to become one of the officials of the then Coalition for Unity and Democracy during the 2005 election, but remained independent since the break-up that followed. Fifteen other people were also elected as possible replacements for missing party members.

Negasso Gidada who is one of the founders of the Forum for Justice and Democracy and one of the only two individual members of it, with Siye Abreha, also pointed out that he chose the UDJ because he wanted to be part of a multinational party. He said that his participation in ethnic-based Oromo groups had borne no fruit.

He had also said that his flirtation with the ruling party, which had made him president of the country, was the period of his life he was most ashamed of. "Nationalists," he said in his speech at the Ghion luncheon, "were like a chick that had not broken out of its shell."

Merera Gudina (PhD), chairman of the Oromo Congress Party, who also chaired the Forum which Negasso helped establish, said that Negasso's belief would not make his ethnic political party change its programme.

The delegates left the party meeting leaving all the work related to the programme to the part of executives, their excuse being the shortage of time for a rich discussion. The two individuals may have come to the party when their presence was most needed.

The 65-party negotiation, including and initiated by the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), had led to agreeing on an electoral code of conduct. The eight parties and two individuals that made up the Forum chose not to join the talks insisting that they only wanted to talk with the ruling party without any of the opposition parties being involved.

The negotiation which continued without them not only came up with a code of conduct but are also to talk about how they are going to share the government budget for election campaigns. The Forum's absence from the negotiations will significantly affect its share of the money, according to a source at the National Electoral Board.

Asrat Tassie says that the UDJ is attracting a lot of support from the Diaspora since the two individuals joined the party. These two people and Shiferaw are expected to travel abroad to capitalise on the heightened interest and raise badly needed money for the party.

Meanwhile the party was trying to get Mesfin out of the way. They have filed charges to the Kirkos District Police for criminal investigation following his behaviour at their last meeting. They want  criminal charges to be filed against him and his followers, which could only be done by the prosecutor based on a police investigation.

Police say that changes cannot be filed  without proof from the National Electoral Board that the professor and his followers are really fired from the party. The charge was made a week ago, and yet an officer said that his department has still not proven the dismissal of the professor's group. The officer in charge was not available for comment.

By WUDINEH ZENEBE
Special to Fortune