#NewsAlert: TPLF Central Committee picks Getachew Reda to lead Tigray interim regional admin

Addis Abeba – The Central Committee of Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), late this evening, has picked Getachew Reda, member of the party’s Executive Committee, to lead the incoming interim administration of the regional state, three source close to the matter told Addis Standard.

The sources also say that Getachew received 18 votes out of the 41 members of the central Committee.

Establishing an Interim Regional Administration (IRA) which will replace the Tigray regional state local government that was elected on 02 September 2020, was one of the key parts of the November 2, 2022 Permanent Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA) signed in Pretoria, South Africa between the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (GoE). Article 10 of the CoHA provides the establishment of ‘an inclusive Interim Regional Administration.

A veteran of the TPLF, Debretsion Gebremichael (PhD), the current leader of the Tigray region, was elected to the region’s presidency after receiving an overwhelming support by the regional parliament after the regional council election, which was rejected by the federal government as unlawful.

Sources say that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has declined to accept TPLF’s recommendation for Debretsion to continue in his position of leadership through the IRA, leading to the Central Committee’s decision to vote on a new pick in Getachew, who is also a member of the negotiating team from Tigray, as TPLF’s preferred official to lead the incoming IRA.

But whether he will get the green light from the federal government is yet to be seen.

A former professor of Law at Mekelle University, Getachew Reda was one of the senior officials of the EPRDF government and had served, among others, as communication minister of the federal government. AS