The politics of Ethiopia are the activities associated with the governance of Ethiopia. The government is structured as a federal parliamentary republic with both a President and Prime Minister. The legislature is multicameral,with a house of representatives and a council. The term politics of Ethiopia mainly relates to the political activities in Ethiopia after the late 20th century when democratization took place in the nation. The current political structure of Ethiopia was formed after the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) overthrew dictator President Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991. A general election was held in June 1994 and Ethiopia has maintained a multiparty political environment until today.
The government of Ethiopia is the federal government of Ethiopia. It is structured in a framework of a federal parliamentary republic,whereby the prime minister is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. The prime minister is chosen by the lower chamber of the Federal Parliamentary Assembly. Federal legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament. The judiciary is more or less independent of the executive and the legislature. They are governed under the 1995 Constitution of Ethiopia. There is a bicameral parliament made of the 108-seat House of Federation and the 547-seat House of Peoples' Representatives. The House of Federation has members chosen by the regional councils to serve five-year terms. The House of Peoples' Representatives is elected by direct election,who in turn elect the president for a six-year term.
Meles Zenawi Asres,born Legesse Zenawi Asres was an Ethiopian politician and a former anti-Derg militant who served as president of Ethiopia from 1991 to 1995 and as prime minister from 1995 until his death in 2012.
The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front was an ethnic federalist political coalition in Ethiopia that existed from 1988 to 2019. It consisted of four political parties:Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF),Amhara Democratic Party (ADP),Oromo Democratic Party (ODP) and Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM). After leading the overthrow of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia,it dominated Ethiopian politics from 1991 to 2019. In November 2019,the EPRDF was dissolved,and Prime Minister and EPDRF chairman Abiy Ahmed merged three of the constituent parties into his new Prosperity Party,which was officially founded on 1 December 2019.
The Tigray People's Liberation Front,also known as the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front,is a left-wing ethnic nationalist,paramilitary group,and the former ruling party of Ethiopia. It was classified as a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian government during the Tigray War until its removal from the list in 2023. In older and less formal texts and speech it is known as Woyane or Weyané.
Under the current constitution,Ethiopia conducts local,regional,and federal elections. At the federal level,Ethiopia elects a legislature. The Federal Parliamentary Assembly has two chambers:the House of People's Representatives with not more than 550 members as per the constitution but actually nearly 547 members,elected for five-year terms in single-seat constituencies;and the Council of the Federation with 117 members,one each from the 22 minority nationalities,and one from each professional sector of its remaining nationalities,designated by the regional councils,which may elect them themselves or through popular elections.
Beyene Petros was an Ethiopian politician and educator who was the professor of Biology at Addis Ababa University and a former member of the Ethiopian House of People's Representatives,representing an electoral district in Badawacho of Hadiya Zone. He was the chairman of one of the largest opposition political parties in Ethiopia,the Ethiopian Federal Democratic Forum Medrek.
Hailemariam Desalegn Boshe is an Ethiopian politician who served as prime minister of Ethiopia from 2012 to 2018. He also previously served as deputy prime minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi from 2010 to 2012. After Meles' death in August 2012,Hailemariam succeeded him as prime minister,initially in an acting capacity. He was then elected as the chair of the EPRDF,the ruling party,on 15 September 2012. Hailemariam also served as the chairperson of the African Union from 2013 to 2014.
General elections were held in Ethiopia on 7 and 18 May 1995 for seats in its Council of People's Representatives;elections in the Afar,Somali,and Harari Regions were delayed until 28 June to assign experienced personnel who could solve possible conflicts and irregularities. This was the first regular multi-party election in Ethiopian history,and the first election since the adoption of a permanent constitution the previous December. Several opposition parties boycotted the election,including the All-Amhara People's Organization,Council of Alternative Forces for Peace and Democracy in Ethiopia,and Ethiopian Democratic Unity Party.
Kuma Demeksa is an Ethiopian politician. Since 24 April 2015,he has been an Ethiopian ambassador to Germany. From 2008 to 2013 he was mayor of Addis Ababa;previous positions include President of the Oromia Region (1995–2001),and Minister of Defense (2005–2008). He was one of the founders,as well as a current member,of the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization (OPDO),which is part of the ruling coalition,the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).
The Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE) was an era established immediately after the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) seized power from the Marxist-Leninist People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) in 1991. During the transitional period,Meles Zenawi served as the president of the TGE while Tamrat Layne was prime minister. Among other major shifts in the country's political institutions,it was under the authority of the TGE that the realignment of provincial boundaries on the basis of ethnolinguistic identity occurred. The TGE was in power until 1995,when it transitioned into the reconstituted Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia that remains today.
Demeke Mekonnen Hassen is an Ethiopian politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of Ethiopia from 2012 to 2024,Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2020 to 2024 and former vice-president of the Prosperity Party. He previously served as chairman of the Amhara Democratic Party (ADP) and deputy chair of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) until the dissolution of the two in December 2019.
Abiy Ahmed Ali is an Ethiopian politician who is the current Prime Minister of Ethiopia since 2018 and the leader of the Prosperity Party since 2019. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize "for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation,and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea". Abiy served as the third chairman of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) that governed Ethiopia for 28 years and the first person of Oromo descent to hold that position. Abiy is a member of the Ethiopian parliament,and was a member of the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP),one of the then four coalition parties of the EPRDF,until its rule ceased in 2019 and he formed his own party,the Prosperity Party.
Addisu Arega Kitessa (Oromo:Addisuu Araggaa Qixxeessaa Amharic:አዲሱአረጋቅጤሳis (born June 26,1982,in Doreni,Ilubabor,Ethiopia is a seasoned Ethiopian politician and public servant. He has held prominent positions at both the regional and federal levels,including Vice President of the Oromia Regional State and Head of Public and International Relations at the Prosperity Party,Ethiopia’s ruling political party. Currently,he serves as Vice President in charge of the Rural Development Cluster,a role he has held since August 2024. With a background in leadership,political science,and international relations,Addisu is recognized for his versatile leadership skills,which have made a significant impact on governance and political affairs in Ethiopia.
The Prosperity Party is a ruling political party in Ethiopia that was established on 1 December 2019 as a successor to the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front by incumbent Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
The Transitional Government of Tigray was a caretaker administration that was formally declared by the House of Federation of Ethiopia on 7 November 2020,in the context of a conflict between the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF),in power in the Tigray Regional State and the federal government of Ethiopia. In late November 2020,the administration,headed by Mulu Nega,planned public consultation and participation in choosing new leaders at the regional and zonal level and preservation of woreda and kebele administrations. The Transitional Government left Tigray in late June 2021 during Operation Alula.
Mulugeta Gebrehiwot Berhe is an Ethiopian peace researcher who as of 2021,was a senior fellow at the World Peace Foundation,Tufts University. He was a rebel of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) when the EPRDF was a guerilla army. He led the disarmament,demobilization and reintegration program of the 380,000 armed rebels after the EPRDF gained control of Ethiopia in 1991. Mulugeta was a mediator in the Darfur Peace Agreement negotiations that led to the 2006 Abuja Agreement and the 2011 Doha Agreement during peace process for the War in Darfur. He was founding Director of the Institute for Peace and Security Studies in 2007. In January 2021 during the Tigray War,Mulugeta,telephoning from the mountains in Tigray Region,described the killings of civilians by the Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) and the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) as "genocide by decree".
The ongoing Ethiopian civil conflict began with the 2018 dissolution of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (ERPDF),an ethnic federalist,dominant party political coalition. After the 20-year border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea,a decade of internal tensions,two years of protests,and a state of emergency,Hailemariam Desalegn resigned on 15 February 2018 as prime minister and EPRDF chairman,and there were hopes of peace under his successor Abiy Ahmed. However,war broke out in the Tigray Region,with resurgent regional and ethnic factional attacks throughout Ethiopia. The civil wars caused substantial human rights violations,war crimes,and extrajudicial killings.
Firew Altaye Gebremedhin or ፍሬውአልታዬገብረመድህንwas born on 2 August 1966. He was an Ethiopian politician and second chief administrator of Wolayita Zone,from 2002 to 2004 and he was succeeded by Amanuel Otoro. He served as member of Ethiopian parliament from 2001 to 2002.
The 1995 Ethiopian Federal Constitution formalizes an ethnic federalism law aimed at undermining long-standing ethnic imperial rule,reducing ethnic tensions,promoting regional autonomy,and upholding unqualified rights to self-determination and secession in a state with more than 80 different ethnic groups. But the constitution is divisive,both among Ethiopian nationalists who believe it undermines centralized authority and fuels interethnic conflict,and among ethnic federalists who fear that the development of its vague components could lead to authoritarian centralization or even the maintenance of minority ethnic hegemony. Parliamentary elections since 1995 have taken place every five years since enactment. All but one of these have resulted in government by members of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) political coalition,under three prime ministers. The EPRDF was under the effective control of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF),which represents a small ethnic minority. In 2019 the EPRDF,under Abiy,was dissolved and he inaugurated the pan-ethnic Prosperity Party which won the 2021 Ethiopian Election,returning him as prime minister. But both political entities were different kinds of responses to the ongoing tension between constitutional ethnic federalism and the Ethiopian state's authority. Over the same period,and all administrations,a range of major conflicts with ethnic roots have occurred or continued,and the press and availability of information have been controlled. There has also been dramatic economic growth and liberalization,which has itself been attributed to,and used to justify,authoritarian state policy.
