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 till today.
Meles Zenawi Asres was an Ethiopian soldier and politician who served as President of Ethiopia from 1991 to 1995 and then Prime Minister of Ethiopia 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.
Oromia is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa (Finfinne).
Tamrat Layne Admassu is an Ethiopian former politician and a converted born-again Christian. He had served as Prime Minister of Ethiopia during the Transitional Government of Ethiopia after the end of the Derg regime. Previously during the 1980s,he was a leader of the Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement,one of the groups that fought against Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in the Ethiopian Civil War.
The Tigray People's Liberation Front,also called 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 from May 2021 until its removal from the list in March 2023. In older texts and Amharic publications,it is known as Woyane or Wayane.
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.
The Gambela Peoples’Democratic Movement,also known as the Gambela People’s Democratic Movement or Gambella Peoples’Unity Democratic Movement,was a political party in the Gambela Region of Ethiopia. It was the regional ally of the ruling EPRDF coalition.
Beyene Petros is 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 is currently 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.
The Oromo Liberation Front is an Oromo nationalist political party formed in 1973 to promote self-determination for the Oromo people inhabiting today's Oromia Region and Oromia Zone in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. The OLF has offices in Addis Ababa,Washington,D.C. and Berlin from where it operates Amharic and Oromo radio stations.
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,serving as the deputy prime minister of Ethiopia,Minister of Foreign Affairs,and 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 serving as the third Prime Minister of Ethiopia since 2018,and as a 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.
The Prosperity Party is a political party in Ethiopia that was established on 1 December 2019 as a successor to the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) by incumbent Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The merger into a countrywide party is part of Abiy's general policy of distancing the country's politics from ethnic federalism. It ran for the first time in the 2021 general election.
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".
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.
