The Prosperity Party ( am, ብልጽግና ፓርቲ, Bilits’igina Paritī; om, Paartii Badhaadhiinaa) is a political party in Ethiopia that was established on 1 December 2019 as a successor to the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) by incumbent Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The merger into a countrywide party is part of Abiy's general policy of distancing the country's politics from ethnic federalism. It ran for the first time in the 2021 general election.

Composition

The Prosperity Party was formed and formally recognised by the

National Electoral Board of Ethiopia The National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) () is an autonomous federal government agency which supervises the national elections of Ethiopia. The NEBE was established by Proclamation number 64/1992, and answers to the House of Peoples' R ...

(NEBE) in December 2019 through the merging of three former EPRDF member parties, the Amhara Democratic Party (ADP), the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP) and the Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM). The

Afar National Democratic Party The Afar National Democratic Party ( am, የአፋር ብሔራዊ ዴሞክራሲያዊ ፓርቲ; ANDP) was a political party in Ethiopia. At the legislative elections held on 15 May 2005, the party won 8 seats, all from the Afar Region. The c ...

(ANDP), the

Benishangul-Gumuz People's Democratic Unity Front The Benishangul Gumuz People's Democratic Unity Front (BGPDUF; am, የቤንሻንጉልና ጉሙዝ ሕዝቦች ዴሞክራሲዊ አንድነት) was a political party in Ethiopia. In the 2010 elections, the BGPDUF won 9 seats. In local ele ...

(BGPDUF), the Ethiopian Somali People's Democratic Party (ESPDP), the

Gambela People's Democratic Movement The Gambela Peoples’ Democratic Movement (GPDM, am, የጋምቤላ ሕዝቦች ዴሞክራሲያዊ ንቅናቄ, translit=Yä-Gambella Həzbočč Demokrasiyawi Nəqnaqe), also known as the Gambela People’s Democratic Movement or Gambella ...

(GPDM) and the Hareri National League (HNL) were also included in the merger. The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the only one not to join the new party, was critical of it upon its formation. The animosity between the two eventually escalated into the Tigray conflict in November 2020.

Program

The program and by-laws of the party were first approved by the executive committee of the EPRDF. Abiy tweeted: The Prosperity Party has been seen as supporters of Ethiopian

civic nationalism Civic nationalism, also known as liberal nationalism, is a form of nationalism identified by political philosophers who believe in an inclusive form of nationalism that adheres to traditional liberal values of freedom, tolerance, equality, in ...

due to the merger of the Oromo Democratic Party with the Amhara Democratic Party, Argoba People's Democratic Organization,

, Ethiopian Somali People's Democratic Party,

, Hareri National League, and the Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement ethnicity-based political parties into the new multi-ethnic party, thus moving these predecessor parties away from their ethnic nationalist and pro-ethnic federalism past into a party that promotes a unified Ethiopian national identity and non-ethnicity based

federalism Federalism is a combined or compound mode of government that combines a general government (the central or "federal" government) with regional governments (Province, provincial, State (sub-national), state, Canton (administrative division), can ...

— all of which are seen by opponents as steps towards taking political powers based on

group rights Group rights, also known as collective rights, are rights held by a group '' qua'' a group rather than individually by its members; in contrast, individual rights are rights held by individual people; even if they are group-differentiated, which ...

away from the various ethnic groups, while proponents see it as a way to move Ethiopian politics and governmental administration away from ethnicity-based identity politics, supporting the individual rights of each person, to mitigate the rise of ethnic nationalism, to foster national unity and solidarity, and to include in the democratic process political parties of several ethnic groups and regions that were once deemed too inferior by the Tigray People's Liberation Front-led Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front regime to fully join the one-party dominated coalition government or be full partakers in revolutionary democracy because of their largely

pastoralist Pastoralist may refer to: * Pastoralism, raising livestock on natural pastures * Pastoral farming, settled farmers who grow crops to feed their livestock * People who keep or raise sheep, sheep farming Sheep farming or sheep husbandry is the r ...

way of life.

Internal organisation and ethnic tensions within the party

The Prosperity Party (PP) exists along ethnic lines. There is an Amhara PP (APP), an Oromo PP (OPP), a Somali PP (SPP), a Sidama PP (SPP), and a Tigrayan PP, led by Nebiyou Shulmichael and of which

Abraham Belay Abraham Belay is an Ethiopian politician serving as the Minister of Defense since 2021. He previously served as the Minister of Innovation and Technology, and as president of the Tigray Region Prosperity Party. He serves as a board member of th ...

and

Mulu Nega Mulu Nega Kahsay (born 15 November 1967) is an Ethiopian academic and politician. Mulu Nega was one of the federal Ethiopian State Ministers of Science and Education in 2020. In November 2020 during the Tigray conflict, the House of Federation ...

are prominent members. Many other ethnic groups have their own PP branch as well. There exists a substantial divide between the Oromo and Amhara wings of the party, with academic Tobias Hagmann noting that the two sides are largely kept together through opposition to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). The Tigrayan PP is in strong conflict with the TPLF as it is a supporter of Abiy Ahmed in the Tigray War (2020-2021). Due to this war, the Tigray PP has become isolated in Tigrayan public opinion to the point that one of the regional PP leaders, Abraham Belay, was forbidden by his own mother to visit her house and her neighbourhood. In March 2021, the

Oromia Prosperity Party Oromia (Amharic: ) ( om, Oromiyaa) is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa. It is bordered by the Somali Region to the east; the Amhara Region, the Afar Region and the Ben ...

(OPP) and

Amhara Prosperity Party Amhara may refer to: * Amhara people, an ethnic group of Ethiopia * Amharic, a language spoken by the Amhara people * Bete Amhara, a lordship and later province of medieval Ethiopia * Amhara Province, a historical region of Ethiopia * Amhara Regi ...

(APP) came with opposite statements, each blaming the other for being the cause of violence and killings.

Symbols

The party's logo consists of two black hands holding three human figures, one blue, one yellow, and one pink, with sun rays shooting outwards from the human figures.

References

{{Ethiopian political parties 2019 establishments in Ethiopia Centrist parties in Africa Ethiopian nationalism Federalist parties in Ethiopia Liberal parties in Ethiopia Nationalist parties in Africa Political parties established in 2019 Political parties in Ethiopia Social liberal parties Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front