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The Eritrean Democratic Alliance (EDA), an umbrella group of nearly a dozen Eritrean opposition groups, is holding its congress in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. On Saturday, February 10th, delegates representing the member groups of the EDA met with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
Meles Zenawi informed the delegates that effective immediately his government has decided to interact with the Eritrean opposition at the EPRDF level which, in turn, has formed a committee headed by Meles Zenawi himself. EPRDF is Ethiopia’s ruling coalition group, at the core of which sits the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front, TPLF, Meles Zenawi’s party. In the past, the Eritrean opposition had to interact with junior officers of the TPLF.
In their discussions, the Prime Minister argued that the EDA had been too busy discussing what kind of governance to install in a post-PFDJ period when in fact, according to him, that is not its mandate and it is a decision that should be best left for Eritreans following the fall of the PFDJ.
The EDA, a coalition representing federalist, Islamist, ethnic autonomists and secular movements, faces a task of working out a strategy that focuses on challenging the monopoly of the PFDJ by presenting an alternative vision that is acceptable to all its members.
Part of this challenge is expected to be addressed in the recommendations of the task forces that were formed in 2006 whose recommendations will be presented to the EDA congress which is expected to convene on Thursday, February 15, 2007.
REPRESENTATION
The EDA leadership also appears to have resolved the contentious issue of representation. In its pre-congress meeting, the EDA leadership agreed to assign two votes each to two member organizations and four votes each to the rest of the organizations.
Organization | Change | Previous # of votes | New # of votes | Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) | None | 2 | 4 | Eritrean Liberation Front – Revolutionary Council (ELF-RC) | None | 2 | 4 | Eritrean Democratic Party (EDP) | None | 2 | 4 | Eritrean Liberation Front – National Congress (ELF-NC) | ELF-NC, EPM and ERDF merged | 2 |
12 | Eritrean People’s Movement (EPM) | 2 | Eritrean Revolutionary Democratic Front (Sedege) | 2 | Eritrean Islamic Party for Justice & Development (Alkalas) | None | 2 | 4 | Eritrean Islamic Islah Movement (Islah) | None | 2 | 4 | Eritrean Democratic Front (Sagem) | None | 2 | 4 | DMLEK (Kunama) | None | 2 | 4 | Red Sea Afar | None | 2 | 4 | EFDM (Federalists) |
None | 1 | 2 | Alnahda | New |
| 2 | TOTAL VOTES |
| 23 | 48 |
Background
Of the eleven opposition organizations listed, some owe their history to the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF), some to the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) and others emerged outside those two experiences.
For information on the political programs of the organizations listed, refer to the following links:
ELF: http://www.omaal.net ELF-RC: http://www.nharnet.com EDP http://www.selfi-democracy.com
ENSF: http://www.adal61.com
Alkhalas: http://www.alkhalas.org/eng-home1.htm
Islah: http://www.islaher.org/
DMLEK: http://www.mesel-biherat.com/
EFDM: http://www.gabeel.net SAGHEM www.democrasia.org |
