Ethiopia’s National Electoral Board has announced that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has been de-registered as a political party for “destroying constitutional order by force”.
In a statement seen by APA on Tuesday, NEBE said it has been evaluating if political parties meet criteria or not to deliberate if they could have a legal status.
The decision to deregister the TPLF came as part of that process, NEBE said.
According to NEBE, statements from the party and facts on the ground helped to determine that the TPLF has been engaged in armed rebellion.
Accordingly, TPLF which came into being 45 years ago and dominated Ethiopian politics for more than 27 years has been dissolved as a political organisation.
The TPLF was formed in 1975 at a time when hundreds of millions of people across Africa and the Middle East were demanding revolution and liberation from bondage.
By the end of the 1980s, the TPLF was by far the biggest and most effective among the coalition of Ethiopian armed rebel groups that had united under the banner of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) to fight the ailing Ethiopian regime.
On 28 May 1991, TPLF troops backed by Eritrean forces seized control of Addis Ababa, the capital.
Discontent, especially among the two largest ethnic groups – the Oromo and Amhara – threatened the delicate compromise of the 1994 constitution, and representatives of the two communities eventually joined forces to outmaneuver the TPLF within the ruling coalition for Abiy Ahmad, who is of mixed Oromo-Amharic parentage, appointed as Prime Minister in 2018.
The spark that set alight the tinder came in early November with an alleged raid by TPLF units on federal military bases in Tigray, in which many national army officers were killed and substantial quantities of hardware was seized.
Abiy launched his offensive immediately.
It has taken federal troops three weeks to fight their way to within artillery range of Mekele.
Several founding members of TPLF have been either killed or captured but it is still unclear whether its chief Debretsion Geberemichael and military generals who defected from the federal army are at large in the city.
Accordingly, NEBE renounced the legitimacy of TPLF based on proclamation 1162/2011 sub article 98/1/4 of the Ethiopian election law.
NEBE further said former TPLF officials will not be allowed to operate on behalf of the party any more based on Article 99 of the same law.
The board also asked the Federal Attorney General to declare details of assets registered in the name of TPLF.
According to NEBE’s statement, TPLF’s assets will be used for an ethics education program after all its debts are settled.
MG/as/APA