Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front

Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front
Chairman Abiy Ahmed
Deputy Chairman Demeke Mekonnen
Founded May 1988
Headquarters Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Newspaper New Vision
Youth wing EPRDF Youth League
Women's wing EPRDF Women's League
Membership (2011) 6,000,000
Ideology Current:
Revolutionary democracy
Until 1991:
Marxism-Leninism
Political position Far-left
Colors Red and Yellow
Seats in the House of Peoples' Representatives
502 / 547
Website
Official website
Cited from party website
Ethiopia
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Ethiopia

The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) (Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ሕዝቦች አብዮታዊ ዲሞክራሲያዊ ግንባር) is a leftist political coalition in Ethiopia. The EPRDF consists of four political parties: Amhara Democratic Party (ADP), Oromo Democratic Party (ODP), Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM), and Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).[1]

History

During the Ethiopian Civil War, the EPRDF was a rebel group battling the Derg, a military regime led by Mengistu Haile Mariam that was effectively in power from 1974 until it was ousted by the EPRDF in 1991. During this period, the Derg was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of opponents without trial in the Ethiopian Red Terror and the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia resulting in 400,000 deaths.[2]

The EPRDF was formed by the union of the TPLF and the Ethiopian Peoples Democratic Movement (EPDM) in early 1989; they were later joined by the OPDO (the Oromo members of the TPLF, EPLF, and 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).[1]

In the early 1990s, following the collapse of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the EPRDF gained support from the United States. Michael Johns, an Africa expert with the Heritage Foundation, wrote in 1991 that "there are some modestly encouraging signs that the front intends to abandon Mengistu's autocratic practices."[3]

Leadership

Organization

The EPRDF is an alliance of four parties:

The EPRDF is led by a Council as well as an Executive Committee, 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.[4]

The other five regions of Ethiopia are governed by parties which were either created or heavily influenced by the EPRDF.[5] 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 (ANDP).[6] These are the five regional parties:[7]

Ideology

The EPRDF has not espoused a well-defined, unified ideology or political philosophy, due to its long-term government. Its members hold a variety of positions that could be broadly defined as being to the left of the opposition parties.[1] The EPRDF traditionally identified itself with a number of general goals: rapid, export-based economic growth; close cooperation with the United States in foreign and defense policies; and several newer issues, such as administrative reform. Administrative reform encompassed several themes: simplification and streamlining of government bureaucracy; privatization of state-owned enterprises; and adoption of measures, including tax reform, in preparation for the expected strain on the economy posed by an rapidly growing population.[8] Other priorities in the early 1990s included the promotion of a more active and positive role for Ethiopia following the collapse of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the internationalization of Ethiopia's economy by the liberalization and promotion of domestic demand (expected to lead to the industrialization) and the promotion of education.[8] A business-inspired commitment to free enterprise was tempered by the insistence of protectionism and tarifs.

Election results

Election Leader # of candidates # of seats won # of Constituency votes % of Constituency vote Government/Opposition
1995 Meles Zenawi 1,881
471 / 500
 16,429,727 82.9%
2000 Meles Zenawi
472 / 527
 Government
2005 Meles Zenawi
327 / 527
 59.8% Government
2010 Meles Zenawi 1,349
499 / 547
 Government
2015 Hailemariam Desalign 1,851
500 / 547
 26,403,177 Government

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Sarah Vaughan, "Ethnicity and Power in Ethiopia" Archived August 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. (University of Edinburgh: Ph.D. Thesis, 2003), p. 168
  2. ↑ de Waal, Alex (1997). Famine Crimes: Politics & the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa. Oxford: James Currey. ISBN 0-85255-810-4.
  3. ↑ "Does Democracy Have a Chance?" by Michael Johns, The World and I magazine, August 1991 (entered in The Congressional Record, May 6, 1992).
  4. ↑ Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung: Parteien in Äthiopien: Zwischen ethnischer Orientierung und Programmausrichtung
  5. ↑ Paulos Chanie: "Clientelism and Ethiopia's post-1991 decentralisation", Journal of Modern African Studies 45/3 (2007)
  6. ↑ Yasin Mohammed Yasin, "Political history of the Afar in Ethiopia and Eritrea", African Affairs, in: Africa Spectrum 42 (2008), p. 39-65
  7. ↑ Lovise Aalen, "Ethnic Federalism and Self Determination for Nationalities in a Semi-Authoritarian State: The Case of Ethiopia", International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 13 (2006), pp. 243-261
  8. 1 2 Ethiopia’s Great Run : The Growth Acceleration and How to Pace It (PDF). World Bank. 2015.

References

  • Vestal, Theodore (1999). Ethiopia: A Post-Cold War African State (1st ed.). Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0275966100.
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