{"id":219042,"date":"2018-03-30T16:06:31","date_gmt":"2018-03-30T20:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?p=219042"},"modified":"2019-02-11T13:13:59","modified_gmt":"2019-02-11T18:13:59","slug":"new-ethiopian-prime-minister-unlikely-to-tackle-regional-protests-analysts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/219042","title":{"rendered":"New Ethiopian Prime Minister Unlikely to Tackle Protests &#8211; Analysts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/1-202-768x432-696x392-1.jpg?resize=780%2C422&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"422\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-219043\" \/><br \/>\nThe newly-elected chairman of the ruling Ethiopian People&#8217;s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition Abiy Ahmed will be unable to change the political system if he becomes the country&#8217;s new prime minister or effectively quells anti-government protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions, experts told Sputnik.<br \/>\nLocal media reported that Ahmed won 108 out\u00a0of the 180 votes from\u00a0the party\u2019s council on\u00a0Tuesday, securing the position as\u00a0the chairman. The EPRDF and its allies control all 547 seats in\u00a0Ethiopia&#8217;s parliament. The parliament will confirm the new prime minister next week.<br \/>\nThe election of\u00a0a new chairman for\u00a0the EPRDF follows Hailemariam Desalegn&#8217;s resignation as\u00a0both prime minister and the ruling coalition&#8217;s chairman on\u00a0February 15.<br \/>\nDr. Fantu Cheru, a senior researcher at\u00a0the African Studies Center of\u00a0the University of\u00a0Leiden, said that even if Ahmed was elected prime minister, he would be unable to\u00a0change the current political system in\u00a0Ethiopia.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The struggle is not about\u00a0electing a new leader\u00a0\u2014 it is all about\u00a0completely changing the entire political system in\u00a0Ethiopia,&#8221; Cheru said.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Assefa Fiseha, a professor at\u00a0the Center for\u00a0Federal Studies at\u00a0the Addis Ababa University, said that Ahmed would have to\u00a0work in\u00a0tandem with\u00a0the EPRDF to\u00a0implement reforms in\u00a0the country.&#8221;The question is whether Dr. Abiy and EPRDF will deliver as\u00a0government and whether long overdue reforms will be made,&#8221; Fiseha said.<br \/>\nCheru went on\u00a0to explain that the reason why Ahmed will be unable to\u00a0alter the political system in\u00a0Ethiopia is due to\u00a0the nature of\u00a0politics in\u00a0the country, where the party rather than\u00a0the prime minister leads on\u00a0policy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He will not be able to\u00a0institute fundamental changes. He will still work with\u00a0the institutional parameters of\u00a0a dominant one party state\u00a0\u2014 the EPRDF. He will have no control over\u00a0defense and security matters; prime ministers do not make policies in\u00a0Ethiopia\u00a0\u2014 the party makes all important decisions. He will, in\u00a0essence, be as\u00a0constrained as\u00a0Hailemariam was,&#8221; Cheru said.<\/p>\n<p>The parties that form the EPRDF are mainly divided along\u00a0ethnic lines. They are the Tigrayan People&#8217;s Liberation Front (TPLF), Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), Oromo Peoples&#8217; Democratic Organisation (OPDO) and Southern Ethiopian People&#8217;s Democratic Movement (SEPDM). Ahmed is an ethnic Oromo, and was the head of\u00a0the OPDO before\u00a0the chairmanship vote. [&#8230;] <a href=\"https:\/\/sputniknews.com\/analysis\/201803291063008858-ethiopia-prime-minister-protests-analysis\/\">CONTINUE READING<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The newly-elected chairman of the ruling Ethiopian People&#8217;s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition Abiy Ahmed will be unable to change the political system if he becomes the country&#8217;s new prime minister or effectively quells anti-government protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions, experts told Sputnik. Local media reported that Ahmed won 108 out\u00a0of the 180 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4588,1586],"class_list":["post-219042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethiopian-news","tag-ethiopia","tag-ethiopia-new-prime-minister"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-UYW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219042"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265273,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219042\/revisions\/265273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}