ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed on Tuesday replaced the defence minister, his former ally, Lemma Megersa, as part of a reshuffle ahead of elections in the heavily divided nation next year.
Lemma was replaced by the former security chief
of Oromiya region, Kenea Yadeta, Abiy’s office said on Twitter. Nine other top
officials were also replaced, including the attorney general, his deputy, and
the mining minister.
Abiy has promised to hold the first free and
fair elections in Africa’s second most populous nation next year, but his
democratic reforms have also unleashed ethnic divisions that frequently spill
into violence.
Lemma was once a trusted ally of Abiy but
relations soured in November after he publicly criticised Abiy’s decision to
consolidate the ethnically based-parties in the ruling coalition into one
political party, the Prosperity Party.
Last week, Prosperity Party suspended Lemma’s membership.
Abiy’s father and Lemma both come from Oromiya,
the most populous of Ethiopia’s 10 regions. Oromiya is a political weathervane:
the region spearheaded the bloody street protests that propelled Abiy to power
in 2018.
But Abiy’s support there is being eroded.
Bloody protests sparked by the assassination of a popular singer killed more
than 178 people there last month, triggering mass arrests.
International rights groups have also criticised
the military for abuses during operations against an insurgency in western
Oromiya.
Lemma’s removal may further whittle away
support for Abiy, said political analyst, Mohamed Olad.
“Lemma enjoys wider support and approval in
Oromia than Abiy,” he said. “Whether he will activate that reservoir of
goodwill depends on two things.
“First, whether he will be free to exercise his
political rights …(and) whether he is willing to play an active role in
politics.”
Lemma’s criticism joined a growing swell of
voices – some from Oromiya – who accuse Abiy of trying to centralise power and
of rolling back his democratic reforms.
A professor of peace and conflict studies at
Bjørknes University in Oslo, Kjetil Tronvoll, told Reuters that the debate
whether to centralise or devolve power was at the heart of Ethiopia’s fractious
politics.
“This is the key controversy in all federal
arrangements – the power balance between the federal and regional states,” he
said.
“If the Oromo youth who helped Abiy to power
turn against him, it could pose a problem during the elections,” Tronvoll said.
Unrest in Oromiya is not Abiy’s only worry. The northern Tigray region, whose people dominated the last administration, has announced it will hold regional elections this month in defiance of a government decision to postpone polls across the nation due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.
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