The final preparatory meeting of the seven-member leadership elected by the Eritrean Democratic Alliance (EDA) last January was concluded this morning in Khartoum. The preparatory leadership was elected for a short transitional period until the general meeting resumes. The preparatory leadership will present its final draft papers to the conference of the delegates of all Eritrean opposition organizations. The meeting will convene tomorrow, Saturday February 5 (initially planed for today, Friday, Feb. 4) to endorse the drafted charter of the EDA, its organizational structure and pass other resolutions.

The seven-member leadership has also worked on a criterion to identify political organizations, their sizes, and their relative representation in the EDA. The proposed criterion will be presented to the general conference of the EDA for endorsement.

Once the proposals are agreed upon and endorsed by the EDA, the meeting is expected to elect "a nine-member executive body including a speaker of the council and a chairman", according to a delegate reached by phone from Khartoum.

Another source said, though a nine-member executive leadership is favored by many delegates, there are other views that suggest the number of members of the executive leadership to be "a seven-member or an eleven-member body" .

Several other delegates described the the pre-conference mood as "surrounded by high morale and spirit of cooperation." Our sources also indicated that the EDP is represented by two-person high level delegation composed of Abdulaziz Khiar and Yohannes while the ELF-RC is represented by the speaker of the RC, Ibrahim Mohammed Ali and a member of the leadership Jemea. The ELF-NC is represented by Ahmed Nasser and Dr. Habte Tesfamariam, both members of the leadership. Similarly, other organizations are representated by high level delegation.