News: Three Tigrayan opposition political parties invalidate committee to lead establishment of interim admin in Tigray

Addis Abeba – Three major opposition political parties in war torn Tigray Region have invalidated the recently announced committee authorized to lead the establishment of an Interim Regional Administration (IRA) in the region pursuant to the signed peace agreement between the federal government of Ethiopia and Tigray authorities in South Africa Pretoria on 02 November 2022.

The parties: Tigray Independence Party, Salsay Weyane and National Congress for Greater Tigray in a joint media briefing yesterday announced that they will not accept the committee that will oversee the establishment of Interim regional government in the region, adding that they have no relationship with the committee.

Dejen Mezgebe (PhD), Communication Director of Tigray Independent Party, one of the three parties, told Addis Standard that the process of setting up the committee was neither participatory nor inclusive that, “all the nominated members, including the military leaders and the scholars, are either current or former members of the TPLF”.

“The election was not democratic and it never allowed the participation of opposition political parties,” Dejene told Addis Standard.

This is despite the committees announcement on Wednesday that it planned to establish an “inclusive, democratic and transparent” interim regional administration (IRA).

Kinfe Hadish, Communication Director of Salsay Weyane Party disclosed during the joint media briefing that the parties didn’t have any clue even who established the committee.

He said, “There are rumors that the Tigray government has taken the responsibility of establishing the committee but [Tigray government] ceased to it exist as of 3 October 2022 and non existing government can’t establish a committee”.

The parties said there should be full participation of all opposition political parties in establishing the committee itself, adding that, TPLF doing everything in its own is not accepted.

Lieutenant General Tadesse Werede Commander-in-Chief of the Tigray armed forces and chairperson of Tigray interim regional administration establishing committee said on Wednesday that the IRA would be established because it is dictated in the peace agreement, and because “we need internal arrangements as there are lots of internal issues that should be given a priority.”

Article 10 of the Pretoria agreement stipulated that “…until elections for the Regional Council and the House of Peoples’ Representatives are held under the supervision of the Ethiopian National Election Board, the establishment of an inclusive Interim Regional Administration will be settled through political dialogue between the Parties”, a decision Tigrayan negotiating team signed, undoing the TPLF-led regional government administration which was elected into office in September 2020, just three months before the war broke out. AS