{"id":278451,"date":"2019-05-29T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.google.com\/articles\/CBMiZ2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmV0aGlvcGlhLWluc2lnaHQuY29tLzIwMTkvMDUvMjkvcG9saXRpY2FsLXNoYWtlLXVwLWFuZC1sb2NhbGlzbS1jYW4tZWRnZS1ldGhpb3BpYS1mb3J3YXJkcy_SAQA?oc=5"},"modified":"2026-09-24T11:27:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T15:27:48","slug":"rene-lefort-said-political-shake-up-and-localism-could-edge-ethiopia-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/278451","title":{"rendered":"Ren\u00e9 Lefort said political shake-up and localism could edge Ethiopia forward"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In May 2019 Ethiopia Insight published a viewpoint by Ren\u00e9 Lefort arguing that Ethiopia needed clearer ideological party lines and stronger grassroots democracy, starting with local elections, to end political paralysis.<\/p>\n<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" height=\"780\" width=\"780\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-271272\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Ethiopian-opposition-parties-announce-plan-to-merge.jpg?fit=780%2C780&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Ren\u00e9 Lefort said political shake-up and localism could edge Ethiopia forward\" \/>\n<p>Lefort said the lasting fight remained the \u201cquestion of nationalities\u201d: citizen-based liberals around Ezema on one side, hardline ethnic federalists on another, and Abiy Ahmed\u2019s Oromo and Amhara ruling parties stuck in the middle.<\/p>\n<p>He argued that elite bargains alone would not settle federal design, and that local contests might smother elitism if they were real.<\/p>\n<p>Kept as politics analysis archive, the Lefort essay is a dated map of Ethiopia\u2019s 2019 party spectrum under Abiy Ahmed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ethiopia-insight.com\/2019\/05\/29\/political-shake-up-and-localism-can-edge-ethiopia-forwards\/\">Ethiopia Insight<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Political shake-up and localism can edge Ethiopia forwards&nbsp;&nbsp;Ethiopia InsightTo end paralysis, the political landscape needs to be restructured along ideological lines, and resurgent grassroots democracy must smother elitism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":271272,"comment_status":"closed","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":[],"class_list":["post-278451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Ethiopian-opposition-parties-announce-plan-to-merge.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1ar9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278451","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\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278451"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":754955,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278451\/revisions\/754955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}