According to the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), Ethiopia has over 62 registered parties, most of which are ethnic based groups. With the on-going political reforms and official calls by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, many political parties (armed and unarmed) have also returned home from exile to take part in peaceful political struggle.
The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia has frequently been calling some of the returnees and few others here in at home to fulfill the necessary legal requirements and get registered so as to legible for the upcoming election. After years of public cry for conducive political landscape, the government and the leading party have demonstrated firm commitment to broaden the political space with visible measures like releasing political prisoners, amending proclamations which were said to have been obstacles for broad political space, as well as calling armed political groups to come home and compete peacefully.
As a further showcase of government’s commitment, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has frequently called upon competitive political parties, in his joint meetings and in public, to unite and emerge as strong competitors so as to challenge his ruling party. He also vowed his parties’ readiness to hand over power if any competing party wins the upcoming election peacefully. However, the public has still been skeptical about the competing parties’ readiness for that huge task.
Some scholars and politicians frequently express their concerns that political parties, especially those ethnic based ones prefer ethnicity to political ideology and sound alternatives in their massive efforts so as to win their constituencies. With such a manifestation, those parties may fail to merge with other parties and come as a strong multinational parties equipped with viable alternatives to challenge the ruling party.
To begin with, these parties lack broad and national agendas. Having parties on ethnic foundation may not be a problem by itself. It is so natural that parties may give priority to membership and acceptance of the ethnicity they claim to promote and strive for its benefits. The real problem is when they lack a viable policy alternatives and ideology they stand for. On the other hand, there arealso problemsrelated with so-called multinational parties who claim to have been promoting citizenship politics rather than ethnicity.
The major problem with those parties is that they are mainly confined to cities, particularly tothe capital city. Their existence is hardly felt by the rural population, which constitutes the great majority and have a great impact on the ballot boxes. Besides, in areas where ethnic-based political parties actively operate,multi-national political parties are viewed as the old unionists determined to destroy ethnic rights. With such a seemingly existing political deadlock, the on-going interparty negotiations, merging and forming coalitions remains highly valuable.
Howsoever big the task of building a very few but strong parties may appear difficult; it all starts with small steps. In view of this, the coalition and merging of political parties, as has been coming into the public spotlight these days, should continue with strong verve. Political parties need to be united and come strong, downsizing their numbers substantially so as to avoid confusions among themselves, and more importantly among their voters.
The Ethiopian Herald, December 26/2018
