Ethiopia EPRDF Council Approved New Party Bylaws, Meeting Concluded

Borkena
November 22, 2019

Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) disclosed on Friday that the council concluded its meeting. The council has also approves draft of the party’s bylaws, which the executive committee of the party approved last Monday,

Although members of Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) did not attend the two days council meeting, apparently in protest against the formation of a new merged party which is named as Prosperity Party, members of the council from three parties have unanimously approved the bylaw.

On Thursday, the party council approved merger of three member parties of the ruling coalition – Amhara Democratic Party, Oromo Democratic Party and South Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement – to form Prosperity Party.

Critics say the new party will essentially have similar structure to the one that the ruling coalition used for nearly three decades which features ethnic quota system in governance. For that reason, the critics tend to see little or no relevance in the merger of the ruling coalition – both in terms of weakening elites rivalry and ethnic-based violence fueled by ethnic politics.