Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) supporters, on Monday, staged a protest rally in Mekelle city. The protest rally was held in violation of ban on all political protests announced by Tigray security chief Lieutenant General Tadesse Werede yesterday.
Hundreds of TPLF supporters marched and protested against a decision announced by the Ethiopian National Election Board (NEBE). NEBE, last week, recognized TPLF as a political party but did not entertain TPLF’s request for reinstatement of its status. TPLF in a statement, on Saturday, rejected NEBE’s decision demanding restoration of its political status.
TPLF, Tigray’s largest political party, was declared a terrorist entity in 2021 during the war between TPLF and Federal forces. In 2023, terrorist designation was removed but TPLF was not restored as a political party. Since then the political party and Federal government have been at loggerheads over the determination of the status of the party.
Federal government of Ethiopia led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed asked TPLF to go to NEBE but NEBE in a statement on Friday said according to existing laws, TPLF’s status cannot be restored. Instead NEBE registered TPLF as a new political party, which was rejected by the Tigray based party which ruled Ethiopia for around 3 decades till 2018.
Today’s protest in Mekelle was held in violation of a ban announced yesterday. On Sunday, Tadesse Werede, Tigray security chief and deputy president of the region, said political escalation in Tigray will not be allowed to be a threat to the peace and security in Tigray.
The party is seeing unprecedented internal divisions. It is due to hold a congress on Tuesday, but the decision of holding a congress is being opposed by 1/3 of party’s central committee members including Getachew Reda, Tigray interim President, who is member of party’s both central and executive committees. Read more..
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