Ethiopia in ‘uncharted territory’ as party chooses PM

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | Ethiopia’s governing coalition is facing an unprecedented tussle behind closed doors as it seeks a new prime minister after Hailemariam Desalegn’s shock resignation from the helm of Africa’s fastest growing economy.

With opposition parties enfeebled, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition wields absolute power, but Hailemariam’s departure last month revealed yawning divisions within the party after more than two years of anti-government protests.

A date for the meeting to replace Hailemariam has not yet been announced, but the stage is set for the most contentious battle to elect a leader in the party’s 27-year rule.

“We are in very uncharted territory, if you wish, and anything can happen,” a political analyst at a western embassy in the capital Addis Ababa told AFP.

– A unknown process –

At the heart of the division are competing claims to power from the four ethnically based parties that make up the coalition, and differing visions of how the EPRDF, long accused by dissidents and rights groups of being authoritarian, should govern Ethiopia.

The latest sign of a schism came last week when 88 lawmakers in parliament, dominated by the EPRDF and its allies, voted against a nation-wide state of emergency decreed after Hailemariam’s resignation.

It passed anyway, though dissidents claim the vote was manipulated.

“There’s no candidate from Ethiopia, or outside, for that matter, who can unite Ethiopia,” a western diplomat said.

It will be up to the 180-member EPRDF council, made up of 45 dignitaries from each of the four parties, to elect a new leader.

Awol Allo, an Ethiopian political commentator who teaches law in Britain, said little is known about how the selection will be made.

“We don’t really have the clarity about the inner workings of party. There are no clear rules about how this individual is picked,” Awol said.

EPRDF council members rarely talk publicly about party politics and government officials did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.

– Three candidates –

Traditionally, the leader of one of the parties in the coalition is chosen as prime minister.

Analysts believe the chairmen of three EPRDF constituent parties are frontrunners to replace Hailemariam, who will stay in office until a successor is chosen.

Among the Oromo, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group which spearheaded the anti-government protests, much of the attention has focused on former science and technology minister Abiy Ahmed, the expected candidate of the Oromo Peoples’ Democratic Organisation (OPDO).