Competing political parties ought to understand first the core principles of a given coalition to prevent possible misunderstandings in the future, said politicians.
Approached by The Ethiopian Herald, Ethiopian Social Democratic Party Chairperson Prof. Beyene Petros said that today various parties are striving to create coalition aimed at becoming competent enough in the upcoming general elections.
However, he said the major problem in this end is that the parties may not persistently uphold the agreement they made with a view to forming coalition in the first place. Responding to the question whether there is an external power that works day in and day out to weaken the competing parties or not, he said he is so doubtful about it.
He, therefore, noted that the parties should come up with better political options and terms of agreement before creating coalition. He also firmly believed that once parties have agreed to work together,they should work on realizing their common goals rather than serving one’s interest.
“Currently, the central committee of our party is evaluating circumstances to form coalition with some parties that have already shown interest in our party’s political ideology, ” Prof. Beyene said. Semayawi Party Public Relations Head Abebe Akalu for his part said that merging to a single party would help the competing political parties to be strong contestants in the forthcoming general elections.
Despite the parties internal failure like forming coalition without thoroughly understanding a given party political ideology, the government had been influencing the competing parties on creating strong coalition among themselves, he noted. “However, currently, the government is encouraging political parties to form coalition and so no one won’t interfere in such political affairs expect the parties.
Therefore, we have to make use this opportunity properly. Following the reform, the country has created a conducive environment to competing political parties.” It is also the call of the people to form coalition and to be competent party that can bring about notable changes in this country, he expressed.
Thus, he said Semayawi party has finalized its preparations to form coalition with Patriotic Ginbot 7 Movement for Unity and Democracy and Ethiopian Democratic parties. The coalition process is based on the parties’ common understanding in the ideology of working on ‘Citizen Politics’ rather than ethnic based establishment, he underlined. It is to be recalled that various parties had been torn apart having formed coalition since the 2005 general elections.
The Ethiopian Herald, January 1/2019
BY YOHANES JEMANEH
