To secure more votes during the upcoming August general election, the ruling coalition in Ethiopia, Prosperity Party, has announced its plan to open branches in every district of Tigray Region.
This is indicated by the Public Relations and International Relations head of Prosperity Party, Awolu Abdi, who spoke to the state daily Amharic newspaper, Addis Zemen. After recently re-branded itself to Prosperity from Ethiopian peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the coalition was not active in Tigray Region, which is the stronghold of the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF).
This is mainly because of the dispute between the ruling coalition led by the reformist Abiy Ahmed and the TPLF, which used to be one of the four members of the coalition until it separated itself from the coalition recently. Mr. Awolu stated that so far Prosperity Party has not been active in Tigray region in a meaningful way and now plans to open branch offices in every Kebele and Wereda (district) in Tigray.
Prosperity Party will soon launch its operations in at the grassroots level in the region. As Ethiopia is set to hold its general election at the end of August this year, Prosperity party is expected to face fierce competition in the region with the TPLF.
Mr. Awolu stated that more than half of the TPLF members are supporters of Prosperity Party and getting leadership at the grassroots level in Tigray won’t be a problem. Over the past few weeks Prosperity Party has been providing training to its mid level leaders in different parts of the country including Somali and Oromia Regions of Ethiopia, among others.