Youth, Women Leagues Expected to Join EPRDF Leadership

August 31, 2010 -- Structural change is expected within the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front’s (EPRDF) top leadership at its congress scheduled for next month, reports Capital. The front’s newly emerging youth and women leagues are likely to join the party’s top leadership for the first time, according to the report.

EPRDF’s organizational congress, held every two years by representatives of the ruling front’s four members, is scheduled to be held from September 15 to 17 in the Oromia regional state, Adama town. 

Each of the four members of the EPRDF – the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) and the Southern Ethiopia Peoples Democratic Movement (SEPDM) – will hold their party congresses before the front meeting. Those elected will participate in the Adama congress.
This year, for the first time, the newly established EPRDF women and youth leagues will also be represented at the congress.

Established after the Hawassa congress, held in September 2008 in Southern’s city Hawassa, the ruling youth league currently has 1,250,445 members while the women’s league is believed to count 996,796 members. Altogether they represent one third of the 5.6 million EPRDF members.

The Youth and Womens organizations are setup up as unified entities, as opposed to coalition such as the EPRDF. The EPRDF has vowed to become one party for nearly two decades now and these groups may serve as test models as indicated by PM Meles.

Source: Capital