Last week, while holding discussions with leaders of competing parties, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed proposed reducing the number of opposition political parties operating in the country from 70 to three or four major parties. The Premier argued that such aggregation of parties will make them far stronger, and better equipped to contest the upcoming election, while assuring that his Office will support the process, if needed.
This sentiment was also echoed on the other side of the aisle where members of the competing parties agreed on the benefits of reducing the number of competing parties. Leaders of three major contending parties this week told the Ethiopian Press Agency that reducing the number of political parties will help strengthen the democratic system even more, and will benefit the country. They also stated that they support the proposal of the Prime Minister, where now in conjugation with the widening of the political space, it is possible to gain what they have lost before by not coalescing together.
So, considering this, in what way can the country make this practical, and reap all the benefits such metamorpho-sization of political parties brings to the table? It will be excellent if we are able to build three or four, or even six or seven, competitive and mainstream national parties in the same vein of US’s two main parties, says Dr. Belayneh Fekadu, Lecturer at Hawassa University School of Governance and Development Studies. However, making it practical will be a daunting task, he adds. “One problem is the commitment and willingness of parties” There have been instances of coalition and merging between political parties in the past, which collapsed in spectacular fashion.
And based on the culture of our parties so far, he goes on to say, I have my reservations on their willingness to concede their political positions. Of course the government has been accused of facilitating the failure of party coalitions at various times in the past; but all in all, it will be very difficult task to aggregate 70 parties into four or five parties, he opines.
Nevertheless, Dr. Belayneh suggests on ways Ethiopia can go about to aggregate the number of parties, citing Nigeria as an example. “After its independence, the formation of political parties was akin to the respective geographic regions and ethnic base, which got fragmented with the expansion of the country’s regions.” But during 1979, the new constitution mandated political parties not to focus on a particular group, and register in at least two-thirds of the states.
While the experiment failed, Dr. Belayneh believes there are some things that Ethiopia can learn from. It would be ideal in Ethiopia’s case to have national parties, alongside strong parties that represent the various regions of the country and small parties that have less influence than the major parties but are still competitive, like green parties, he deducts.
Furthermore, when asked about the implication such kind of approach will have on, for example, freedom of association, the Lecturer argues it is about choosing which is more advantageous for the country. “As I have said earlier, Ethiopia is a very diverse country, with very diverse interests. We have to put forward a system where we can aggregate these diverse interests into few parties so that it can be more manageable.” So, according to him, the government should encourage this so that competitive parties will come through.
As to Dr. Costantinos Berhutesfa, a Public Policy Expert, it is up to the parties themselves to take the steps needed to coalesce and be more competitive, rather than the government. While it is up to them, there are factors that can be used to motivate their appetite or willingness to join forces. Firstly, since only 12 parties are represented in every electoral district, it becomes very difficult for every party to participate, as there are so many parties, explains Dr. Costantinos. Another point is that they need to be stronger with clear political program and agenda in order to beat the incumbent, which is in a very strong position having held office for the last 27 years, he notes.
Moreover, he also believes that changing the First Past The Post (FPTP) electoral system – a system where a candidate can win with two votes if every other candidate only secured a single vote – to proportional representation will incentivize parties to coalesce as such electoral system gives the opportunity to win elections by forming a coalition. When asked about how Ethiopia should move in terms of creating a left-right political spectrum in order to classify political positions and ideologies, Dr. Costantinos points out that what is important in this regard is addressing the major practical issues in Ethiopia.
He indicates issues like deficiency of capital, especially foreign currency, youth unemployment, the country’s security and stability, and ways to solve them needs to be the agendas of concern for the parties. As there are a lot of agendas that can unite the competing parties, it would be behoove of them to look beyond ethnic appeal and identity, he argues.
“Some parties are already creating a coalition.” Dr. Costantinos concludes that there are many parties in Ethiopia; and when it comes to democratic competition, the agenda between these parties does not exceed three or four major agendas. Thus, they have to line up the agenda base. Setting up review committee, and adding eligibility criteria to register political parties are some of the steps the government can take to reduce the numbers of political parties to a manageable level so that they can play their own role in facilitating the political and democratization process of the country.
The Ethiopian Herald, December 5/2018
BY ROBEL YOHANNES
