Prosperity Party is ‘Illegitimate’ — TPLF

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) officially announced the end of the coalition, which ruled Ethiopia for the past thirty years. On its General Assembly last weekend, TPLF declared that EPRDF got ‘demolished with betrayal.’

Prime minister Abiy Ahmed, in November 2019, unified EPRDF to form the new party called Prosperity Party. All of the members of the coalition but TPLF agreed with unification. TPLF was the only opposition to the merger during the meeting of the Executive Committee of EPRDF. And it has refused to attend the EPRDF council meeting, which made the final decision to merge the coalition.

At the time, TPLF released a statement that the assembly of TPLF will decide over the merger because we [the members of the EPRDF council representing TPLF] don’t have legal status to dissolve TPLF with a pretext of ‘merging.’

After about two months, the TPLF assembly made an immediate meeting and decided to take a different path with Prosperity Party. “TPLF has a significant difference in goal and direction with PP, and it would not merge with it, ” says the statement.

Additionally, TPLF considered the new party as ‘illegitimate and dependent.’

TPLF founded EPRDf along with Amhara Democratic Party (ADP), the so-called Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), in 1988. Later on, the rest of the parties joined the coalition and managed to rule Ethiopia since the downfall of the Derg regime.

“EPRDF founded by TPLF and ANDM but demolished by ADP,”  said the chairperson of TPLF Debretsion Gebre Michael. TPLF will secure its share in the property of EPRDF legally, says the statement of the TPLF assembly.

Moreover, the party said the relationship that exists between TPLF and the federal government would be based on a legal and constitutional basis. “Any action other than this one would be unacceptable.”

Finally, TPLF said that it decided to make strategic relations with other federalist parties in the country since EPRDF has ‘demolished.’