Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front

The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ሕዝቦች አብዮታዊ ዲሞክራሲያዊ ግንባር^?; abbreviated EPRDF) is the ruling political coalition in Ethiopia. It is an alliance of four other groups: the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization (OPDO), the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), the South Ethiopian Peoples' Democratic Front (SEPDF)(This particular party has a students's Wing in Adama Science and Technology University created by Tamiru) and the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front (TPLF). Together they had 472 of the 527 seats in the House of People's Representatives following the election held in May 2000. The results of the last legislative elections, 23 May 2010 have not been accepted by all contesting parties. The disagreements led to a prolonged crisis and public unrest which led to the death of 193 Ethiopians which included civilians and police officers. The ruling front claimed to have won 499 of the 527 seats. The opposition, which claims widespread fraud and intimidation, claims that the two major opposition coalitions together would form a majority. Though one of the major opposition parties (Coalition for Unity and Democracy) carried Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa by a landslide, they did not have the stronghold which the EPRDF has in rural Ethiopia.

The EPRDF's two main opponents in the 2005 elections were the Coalition for Unity and Democracy and the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces, both of which are also coalitions of multiple opposition parties. The opposition made spectacular gains in the election which appeared to have caught all observers, including the contestants themselves, off guard. Early results from the polls showed that the opposition on course to sweep to power with a substantial majority. However, the National Election Board which the Prime Minister appoints, stopped the vote tabulation process for several days leading to a break in the chain of control of ballot boxes. When the counting finally resumed and the ruling coalition declared itself the winner, the opposition cried foul and contested the results.

Organization

The EPRDF is an alliance of four parties: the OPDO, which is based in the Oromia Region; the ANDM based in the Amhara Region; the SEPDF based in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region; and the TPLF based in the Tigray Region. A total of about 4 million people are together members of the allied parties.^[1] The EPRDF is led by a central committee as well as a Politbureau, whose members are selected every three years by a congress of the party. The four member parties have the same organizational structure. Government and party structures are closely intertwined with each other.^[2] This interweaving reaches down to the local level, as described in its 10 March 2010 report, Human Rights Watch:

Today, kebele officials wield a massive amount of power over their constituents in a myriad ways, in a system where the line between state and ruling party is firmly entrenched. Kebele officials determine eligibility for food assistance, recommend referrals to secondary health care and schools, and provide access to state-distributed resources like seeds, fertilizers, and other essential agricultural inputs. Minor claims and disputes at the kebele level are adjudicated by social courts based in these Kebeles. Local prisons; and, in some places, local-level militia are used to execute the laws and political decisions of the ruling party.^[3]

The other five regions of Ethiopia are governed by parties which were either created or heavily influenced by the EPRDF.^[4] One of the earliest was the Afar People's Democratic Organization in the Afar Region, which subsequently merged with other Afar political groups to create the Afar National Democratic Party.^[5] In the Somali Region, the Somali People's Democratic Party was founded in 1998 after relations with the Ogaden National Liberation Front soured.^[6] In the Harari Region is the Hareri National League, while in Gambela is the Gambela People's Democratic Movement and in Benishangul-Gumuz Region is the Benishangul-Gumuz People's Democratic Unity Front.^[7]

Political ideology

The EPRDF professes an ideology of democratic socialism, and federalism, while stressing the right of self-determination of the individual ethnic groups of Ethiopia.^[1] The alliance also professes today a free market orientation. Although the current federal republic originated the centralizing efforts of Imperial Ethiopia and the unitary orientation of the Derg junta, the EPRDF claims to have introduced political decentralization,in which the regional states have own parliaments and governments and opened Ethiopia to a multi-party democracy. Despite this decentralization, the EPRDF remained very much a centralized organization.

In its 19 years as the ruling party, the EPRDF has pursued a policy of the so-called Agricultural development Lead Industrialization, after the Maoist economic policy of the early communist China. Despite professing that it supports a private market economy, the EPRDF-dominated administration has actually hindered private initiative.^[2]

History

Before it became the government in 1991, the EPRDF was a rebel group, battling the military junta known as the Derg. Formed from the union of the TPLF and the Ethiopian Peoples Democratic Movement (EPDM) in early 1989, they were later joined by the OPDO (Oromo prisoners of war of the TPLF and EPLF, and Oromo members of EPDM) and the Ethiopian Democratic Officers’ Revolutionary Movement (a small body of Derg officers captured by TPLF, most notably at Shire in February 1989, which was later disbanded after the establishment of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia.^[8]

The EPRDF held its sixth party congress in September 2006 at Mek'ele in the Tigray Region.^[1]

References