The Ethiopian Federal Democratic Unity Forum (Medrek) this week called on all opposition political parties in the country to stand together to overcome the recent unrest in Oromia and Amhara regional states.
The party also called upon the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) to accept the decisions of the public.
The party, in its recent statement, also stated that the peoples of Ethiopia that are living in different parts of the country were presenting their demands peacefully in the past decades. However, due to the delayed response from the government, the public is now staging its concerns and questions through peaceful disobedience.
“The peaceful disobedience and unrest in Oromia for the past ten months and in Amhara for the past two months is the result of the government’s measure to control the problems through its security apparatus than conducting genuine discussions with the public,”the statement added.
According to the statement issued by the party, there is also a major gap in the opposition block when it comes to addressing the agendas and concerns of the public. In that regard, the party called on all opposition political parties working in the country to stand together and combine their agendas and lead the struggle to a higher level.
The party went on to criticiz opposition political parties and stated that the ruling party’s success and being able to survive this long is not because the party is strong; it is rather because the opposition parties are divided and fragmented.
In this regard, the party stated that all opposition parties, organizers of the struggle and individuals should refrain from any activity that hampers the struggle of the public and to contribute their own share to address the demands of the public.
Apart from that, the party demanded that the parliament,which was established following the May 2015 elections, be dissolved claiming that it was rigged and also called for the dissolution of the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) which the party believes is not independent and able to administer elections in the country.
Finally, the party called upon the peoples living in different corners of the country to be aware of the problems that the ruling party brought to the country and to support the solutions provided by Medrek,which is to be united and continue the struggle and pressure the government to accept the solutions provided by the party.
Medrek has four member parties which include the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), Sidama Liberation Movement (SLM), Union of Tigreans for Democracy and Sovereignty (Arena) and the Ethiopian Social Democracy-Southern Ethiopia People’s Democratic Union.
