ETHIOPIA Government quietly disintegrating The general election looming ahead in 2015 is already casting a shadow over the Ethiopian government, whose sole uniting bond would seem to be its praise for the memory of its late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. His portraits are on all the walls in Addis Ababa, which was not the case when he was alive, and in the Federal Assembly a video projector plays his speeches with the aim of inspiring the new MPs. And yet, since Meles Zenawi died in August 2012, the federal government has been rudderless, lacking a descendent. His successor as Prime Minister, Haile Mariam Desalegn, has neither the grip nor the political clout and has not managed to impose himself on the other political leaders. He frequently has to be content with merely dealing with everyday business. While it is true the Ethiopian State, whose tradition goes back a long way, has not fallen into decadence, the different factions and regionalist tendencies are making federal power increasingly fragmented. Divisions produce inertia ; Going beyond appearances, the ruling coalition Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) is in an embryonic crisis state. Its central core, the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF), is deeply divided between the faction led by Tigray Regional State President Abay Woldu, and the faction headed by Deputy Prime Minister Debretsion Gebremichael, not to forget the various other Tigrayan sub-factions such as those of the elderly Marxist Sebhat Nega and the Meles Zenawi’s widow Azeb Mesfin. ireport.cnn/docs/DOC-1131294
Posted on: Sun, 11 May 2014 21:27:20 +0000