The Benishangul Gumuz People's Democratic Unity Front (BGPDUF; ) was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. In the 2010 elections, the BGPDUF won 9 seats. In local elections held the same day, the BGPDUF won 98 of the 99 seats in the Benishangul-Gumuz parliament. The BGPDUF emerged from a 1996 conference led by the former Deputy Prime Minister Tamrat Layne. Previous to the conference, relations between the dominant

Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF; ) was an ethnic federalist political coalition in Ethiopia that existed from 1989 to 2019. It consisted of four political parties: Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), Amhara ...

(EPRDF) and its partner, the Benishangul People's Liberation Movement (BPLM) had grown strained, and the BPLM was ineffective due to internal factionalism. The conference announced its members had agreed that "all the parties should evaluate and cleanse themselves of ' OLF sympathisers', 'supporters of Sudanese interventionists' and 'corrupt officials'". Whereupon, under the direction of EPRDF cadres, members of not only the BPLM but the other five ethnic-based parties in the

Benishangul-Gumuz Region Benishangul-Gumuz () is a regional state in northwestern Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Er ...

, submitted to a grueling session of ''gimgema'' or

self-criticism Self-criticism involves how an individual evaluates oneself. Self-criticism in psychology is typically studied and discussed as a negative personality trait in which a person has a disrupted self-identity. The opposite of self-criticism would be ...

; those who were found to have admitted their weaknesses satisfactorily were allowed to enroll in the new parties being formed. As Asnake Kefale Adegehe explains: : First, the BPLM, which had had a pan-regional claim was reduced to the Bertha and was renamed the EBPDO. Second, the two distinct ethnic parties that claimed to represent; the Mao and the Komo were merged to establish the Mao-Komo People's Democratic Organisation (MKPDO). The Gumuz and Boro-Shinasha ethnic parties remained without much change. The four organisations were then brought together to form a new front modelled after the EPRDF and named the BGPDUF.

Previous election results

In the 2005 elections, the party won 8 seats, all from the

. The Deputy Chairman of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Affairs Committee in the following session of the Ethiopian Parliament was a member of the BGDUF. In the 2000 Regional assembly elections, the BGDUF won 71 of 80 seats in Benishangul-Gumuz parliament. In the August 2005 Regional assembly elections, the party won 85 out of 99 seats in the Benishangul-Gumuz. In the 2008 by-elections for the Regional legislature, the BGPDUF won 5 seats. In December 2019, the party merged with the Afar National Democratic Party (ANDP), the Amhara Democratic Party (ADP), the Ethiopian Somali People's Democratic Party (ESPDP), the Gambela People's Democratic Movement (GPDM), the Hareri National League (HNL), the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP) and the Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM) to form the Prosperity Party.

Notes

{{Ethiopia political parties 1996 establishments in Ethiopia 2019 disestablishments in Ethiopia Defunct political parties in Ethiopia Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front Political parties disestablished in 2019 Political parties established in 1996