107 Ethiopian political parties signed a code of conduct today, March 14, 2019. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed also attended the signing of the document representing Ethiopian People’s Democratic Front (EPRDF). Despite PM Abiy Ahmed call for political parties to merge and form a stronger united party they ended up even becoming more divided. When Abiy made the initial call, the parties were 80 and after a few months, the number rose to 107.
From the total of 107 political parties, 33 of them used Ethiopia in their party name. From ethnic-based parties, 13 of them are from Oromia while five are from Amhara. Despite G7 Secretary Andargachew Tsige tagged the ethnic-based parties’ lacks the initiative to merge even those similar to Ginbot 7 ideology are not joining. In an interesting twist, even parties like Semayawi Party who dissolved by merging with Ginbot 7 were also registered as an independent.
EPRDF created more confusion with the registration of ADP and OPD with their old name while the party itself registered as front and as a single party.
107 Ethiopian political parties signed a code of conduct today, March 14, 2019. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed also attended the signing of a document representing Ethiopian People’s Democratic Front (EPRDF).
