Ethiopia: TPLF Officially Breaks With Ruling Coalition

TPLF formally announced that it is going separate ways from Ethiopia’s newly merged Prosperity Party. It claims wealth share from the defunct EPRDF. It also defined its relation with the Federal government

Following two-days of organizational conference called to determine whether Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) will merge with Ethiopia’s new political party-Prosperity Party, the ethnic Tigray party officially announced on Sunday that it will not merge.

Apart from being official this time around, the executive committee and the central committee of the organization rejected the formation of Prosperity Party after the demise of the former ruling coalition (Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front – EPRDF) in November 2019.

TPLF was a key actor and an instrumental organization in the creation of EPRDF coalition which ruled the country between 1991 and 2018.

It rejected merger with Prosperity Party (PP)claiming that it is not on the same page with the new party in terms of vision (objective) and political orientation (ideology). TPLF also accuses Prosperity Party of moves to end the federal system in the country and endanger the constitution itself.

PP has responded to the allegations saying that they the allegations are meant to be a propaganda campaign to tarnish the image of the new party.

According to a report by Ethiopian News Agency, state media, TPLF has also clarified, in a statement issued on January 5, about the kind of relations it will have with the Federal government.

It said it will have a relationship based on the constitution of Ethiopia and that any other activity will not be accepted. The report unspecified as to what sorts of “unconstitutional” activities of the Federal government will not be accepted by Tigray regional state.

Not just that. TPLF also stated that it will recover, through legal means, its share of wealth that was shared by the four organizations that formed the now defunct EPRDF.

Three member parties and five ally parties of EPRDF officially merged on December 1, 2019 to form a single national party which they called Prosperity Party.

On December 25, 2019, National Election Board of Ethiopia announced that it has recognized the new party saying that it the parties that formed it followed established legislative guidelines to do so.

This week the party already launched what looks like unofficial election campaign in the capital Addis Ababa.

TPLF, on the other hand, is mobilizing political force that it calls “Federalist Bloc” to “save the constitution and the Federal system.