Benishangul Gumuz People's Democratic Unity Front

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Benishangul-Gumuz People's Democratic Unity Front (abbreviation BGPDUF ; Amharic የቤንሻንጉልና ጉሙዝ ሕዝቦች ዴሞክራሲያዊ አንድነት YäBenəšangulna Gumuz Həzbočč Demokrasiyawi Andinet to German  Democratic united front of the people of Benishangul-Gumuz , as English Benishangul Gumuz Democratic Unity Front under the symbol BGDUF ) was the ruling political party in the region Benishangul-Gumuz region in Ethiopia . It was the regional partner of the nationally ruling coalition of parties, Revolutionary Democratic Front of the Ethiopian Peoples(EPRDF). On December 1, 2019, it joined forces with the EPRDF to form the new prosperity party .

The party was registered under its last name on March 21, 2002. The last party leader was Habtamu Hika . The vice-chairman of the Committee on Environmental Protection and Natural Resources was a member of the party.

history

In the 1980s, there were two armed resistance groups in the Benishangul-Gumuz area who fought against the Derg regime in the border area between Ethiopia and Sudan . They cooperated with the Oromo Liberation Front and with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). After the TPLF and the EPRDF coalition led by it had overthrown the Derg regime in 1991, they merged both groups to form the Berta People's Liberation Movement (BPLM). This party, which was named after the Berta ethnic group , was to govern the new Benishangul-Gumuz region as a partner of the EPRDF. In 1993 the EPRDF organized three other parties for certain ethnic groups: the Gumuz People's Democratic Movement (GPDM) for the Gumuz , the Boru-Shinasha People's Democratic Movement (BSPDM) for the Shinasha and the Mao / Komo People's Democratic Movement (MKPDM) for the Mao and Komo .

At first, conflicts mainly arose within the BPLM. Since it was founded, this comprised various factions that competed for resources and offices as well as ideologically . One of the three factions was influenced by the Sudan's ruling National Islamic Front (NIF), which promoted Islamist tendencies in the partially Muslim border region of Benishangul-Gumuz. This BPLM parliamentary group called for “national self-determination” for Benishangul-Gumuz, which the EPRDF saw as striving for a connection to Sudan. The NIF also supported this faction with arms deliveries and military training, and BPLM members began jihad against government institutions, military posts and immigrant highland Ethiopians.

In 1994 the four parties were reorganized into two parties, the Benishangul and North Western Ethiopian People's Democratic Unity Party (BNWEPDUP) and the Benishangul and Western Ethiopian People's Democratic Party (BWEPDP). The TPLF / EPRDF justified this step with wanting to reduce ethnic fragmentation . In the 1995 elections, the two parties ran separately, and there were also independent candidates. When the office of regional president fell to a member of the Gumuz ethnic group, there were armed conflicts between the ethnically defined parties of Berta and Gumuz. Berta claimed the regional presidency for themselves, since they are the largest group with 26.7% of the population and have fought longer against the Derg regime.

From 1995 the EPRDF took action against the influence of the Sudanese government in Benishangul-Gumuz. For this purpose, it also allowed the South Sudanese rebel army SPLA to establish bases in the region. In 1996 the EPRDF organized a " Peace and Democracy Conference " and united BNWEPDUP and BWEPDP to form the Benishangul-Gumuz Democratic Unity Front BGDUF. Vice Prime Minister Tamrat Layne sacked the entire regional government and had many of its members jailed for corruption. 250 selected loyal politicians were trained by the EPRDF over a period of three months. The program of the new party was that of the ANDM (the EPRDF member party in the Amhara region ).

Election results

In the regional elections in 2000, the BGDUF won 71 of the 80 seats in the regional parliament of Benishangul-Gumuz. In the regional elections in August 2005, the party won 85 out of 99 regional parliamentary seats. In the by-elections for the regional parliaments in 2008 , she won another five seats.

In the general parliamentary elections in Ethiopia on May 15, 2005 , the BGPDUF won eight of the nine seats of Benishangul-Gumuz in the lower house of the Ethiopian Parliament with 1.4% of the nationwide vote . Of the eight MPs, seven were men and one woman.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ National Electoral Authority of Ethiopia : Political Parties that are Actively Participating in the Upcoming Election
  2. ^ English-language website of the Ethiopian Parliament ( memento of September 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on May 13, 2010
  3. ↑ a b c d Paulos Chanie: Clientelism and Ethiopia's post-1991 decentralization , in: Journal of Modern African Studies 45/3, 2007
  4. ^ A b c John Young: Along Ethiopia's Western Frontier: Gambella and Benishangul in Transition , in: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Vol. 37/2, June 1999, pp. 333–336
  5. ↑ African Elections Database: 14 May & 31 August 2000 Regional State Council Elections in Ethiopia ( English ), accessed 13 May 2010
  6. ↑ African Elections Database: May 15 & August 21, 2005 Regional State Council Elections in Ethiopia , English, last accessed on May 13, 2010
  7. ↑ Official election results for the House of Peoples' Representatives ( Memento of 6 July 2007 at the Internet Archive ), Walta Information Center , May 2008 ( English , accessed on 17 March 2009)
  8. ↑ English-language website of the Ethiopian People's House of Representatives : List of parties ( memento of July 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive )