ADDIS ABABA – Council of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has refuted a statement by one of the front members, Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) in relation to EPRDF’s moves towards evolving in to a unified multinational party.
In a statement EPRDF issued yesterday, the council indicated that the movement to change the front in to a unified multinational party was not initiated by the current leadership of the front. Rather it has been under discussion since the fifth organizational assembly of the front that took place in 2004.
The statement indicated that the unification movement has been under discussion in all conferences of the front and acclaimed by all members ever since. The point of concern raised since then was rather the delay of the study for the front’s unification.
EPRDF further noted that TPLF which has until recently been a proponent and pioneer in the efforts of unifying the front is releasing statements that shade wrong views on the agenda.
The statement recalled that during EPRDF’s eleventh organizational assembly held last year in Hawassa all member parties of the front have decided with consensus for the immediate completion of the study on the unification. The discussions currently underway have involved TPLF and other sister parties and are intended to gather inputs to supplement the study before reaching final decision.
Final decision would be dealt with as per the procedures of EPRDF in the future. However, TPLF has violated the rules of EPRDF as it has rushed into issuing repeated and separate statement which EPRDF noted that it should be corrected.
The front further explained that the other fallacy of TPLF’s statement is that the later in its repeated statements has claimed that the unification is intended to form a unitary government. EPRDF’s statement elaborated that instead of engaging in rational argument TPLF has engaged in spread confusion by wrongly claiming that EPRDF’s evolution into a single multinational party will expropriate the country’s nations, nationalities and peoples of their rights for self administration, dissolve the federal system to establish a unitary government.
The statement further said a country’s government structure is basically determined with the involvement of all political parties and peoples of the country rather than the sole interest of a single party. It refuted TPLF’s claim as invalid since unification of EPRDF alone cannot dissolve the country’s federal system.
The study for the unification of EPRDF was commissioned by all member parties of the front including TPLF, the statement noted adding that both the reason for the unification and the intended outcome have no relation with a unitary government.
The main reasons to evolve EPRDF in to a unitary multinational party include the fronts vulnerability to losing its internal strengths when member parties violate shared rules, the need to realize its goal of forming a single political and economic community by forming strong national unity, failure to involve partner political parties and the people they represent in decision-making, and its inability to allow membership to any citizen of the country, among others.
The statement further assured that it will keep on publicizing relevant information to all hierarchies of the front as well as the public related to the agenda as per the rules and procedures of the front.
The Ethiopian Herald October 19/2019
BY STAFF REPORTER
