| Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Alemayehu Atomsa |
| Founded | 1989 |
| Headquarters | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia |
| Youth wing | OPDO Youth League |
| Ideology | Democratic socialism, Social democracy, Oromo Self-determination |
| Website | |
| http://www.opdo.org.et/ | |
| Ethiopia |
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The Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization (OPDO) is an ethnic-based political party in Ethiopia, and part of the alliance with the Amhara National Democratic Movement, the South Ethiopian Peoples' Democratic Front and the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front that forms the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). At the last legislative elections, 15 May 2005, the party was part of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, that won 327 out of 527 seats.[1]
In the August 2005 Regional assembly elections, the party won 387 out of 537 seats in the Oromia Region, and 14 out of 36 seats in the Harari Region.[2]
The OPDO was created in late 1989 by the EPRDF after they grew dissatisfied with their relations to the existing Oromo Liberation Front against the Derg regime. At first a weak organization, according to Paul B. Henze, the OPDO attracted defectors from Derg military units and gained supporters when in 1991 the EPRDF occupied parts of the provinces of Wollo and Shewa which had significant Oromo majorities.[3]
In 2001, the OPDO was rocked by a series of corruption scandals, which led to the ouster of then secretary general Kuma Demeksa on charges of corruption, "anti-democratic practices", abuse of power and nepotism. Major-General Abadula Gemeda at the time resigned his commission in the Ethiopian National Defense Force and took control of the entroubled OPDO.[4]
The OPDO held their fourth congress on 23 February 2006 in Adama.[5]
In the 2008 by-elections, the OPDO won 23 seats in the Oromia Regional legislature, and 613 seats from 108 kebeles for elections to the Kebeles Peoples' Representatives Council.[6]