Ethiopia: TPLF suspends Reda as wrangles worsen

MEKELLE, Ethiopia - Getechew Reda, the Tigray region interim leader, has been suspended by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which has since re-elected Debretsion Gebremichael as its chairman following a week of the Party's Congress.

There significant absence of key party members during the Congress in Mekelle, the region's capital. Tigray is fresh from the war which left hundreds of people dead before the Pretoria and Nairobi accords were signed, ending the tension.

Key among the changes was the replacement of Getachew Reda as the TPLF deputy leader, with Amanuel Assefa, the former head of the Tigray region’s justice bureau and chief of the Interim Administration President’s office. Amanuel was the chief secretariat of the Congress.

The suspension of Getachew Reda, who also serves as the president of the Tigray Interim Administration, and other key figures from the party’s executive committee raises questions about the potential impact on their roles within the interim regional administration, Addis Standard reports.

But TPLF says the suspended members could be reinstated after a formal appeal to the management committee. Reda has been the interim regional president having been installed following Pretoria and Nairobi accords.

However, over the weekend, a separate conference was convened by Getachew and several other key members of the party who boycotted the Congress under the theme “Salvation of the People and the Party”. In its 11-point resolution, the conference already declared resolutions of the 14th Congress of the TPLF to be “null and void.”

At the start of the Congress, the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) also declared the Congress and its outcomes illegal by for non-compliance with its bylaws.

During the congress, the TPLF also elected a new nine-member executive committee, with only three members – Debretsion, Fitlework Gebre Egziabher, and Dr. Abraham Tekeste – retaining their positions from the previous committee elected into office during the 13th congress of the party in September 2018.

Notably, former executive members, including Ambassador Addisalem Belema and Getachew Asefa, former Chief of Ethiopia’s spy agency, were demoted from the nine-member executive to the 45-member Central Committee.

GAROWE ONLINE