The Tigray Democratic Party ( ti, ትግራይ ዴሞክራሲያዊ ፓርቲ, TDP) is an opposition party in the

Tigray Region The Tigray Region, officially the Tigray National Regional State, is the northernmost regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob, and Kunama people. Its capital and largest city is Mekelle. Tigray ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

Creation

The Tigray Democratic party (TDP) describes its origin as an expatriate group in 1995, that shifted to Ethiopia in 2018 and held its first organising conference under Ethiopian law for party registration during 7–8 December 2019.. A related group formerly known as Tigrean Alliance for National Dialogue (TAND) was created in March 1995 in

Washington DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, USA by former members of the

Tigray People's Liberation Front The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF; ti, ህዝባዊ ወያነ ሓርነት ትግራይ, lit=Popular Struggle for the Freedom of Tigray), also called the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, is a left-wing ethnic nationalist paramilitar ...

(TPLF), including Aregawi Berhe (a former TPLF military commander), Ghidey Zer'atsion (former TPLF Deputy Chairman) and Mekonen Zelelew (veteran fighter).

Leadership and structure

, Aregawi Berhe, a former co-founder of the

(TPLF), is the chair of the TDP. Senior leaders in January 2019 included Ghidey Zer'aTsion, a former co-founder and deputy chairman of TPLF, Mulubirhan Haile and Gidena Medhin who left TDP in June 2022. As of 2019, the leadership structure of the TDP included a Central Committee of 12 members, among which five form the Executive Committee; and a 3-member Audit and Control Committee.

Membership

The party has few members.

Positions

2020 Tigray election and conflict

In July 2020, the TDP announced that it would boycott the 2020 Tigray regional election. In November 2020, the TDP criticised the 4 November 2020 Northern Command attacks by TPLF security forces against the federal Ethiopian Northern Command bases and headquarters in the

, describing the attacks as treasonous. TDP chair Aregawi Berhe described the TPLF as seeking wealth and power and uninterested in ordinary Tigrayans' interests. In early December 2020, TDP chair Aregawi Berhe called for political parties in Tigray to cooperate and for civil society organisations to be developed. Aregawi, speaking on behalf of the TDP, declared the TDP's support for the federal security forces' role in the 2020 Tigray conflict, complemented Abiy Ahmed for a 14 December report to the

House of Peoples' Representatives The House of Peoples' Representatives is the lower house of the Ethiopian Federal Parliamentary Assembly. Located in the capital Addis Ababa, the House has 547 members. All are elected in theory for five-year term in single-seat constituencies. ...

(HoPR) on the conflict, and criticised the "atrocities and oppression" of the TPLF "against the people of Tigray". Aregawi stated that the TDP aimed to promote the building of a democratic system and called for people to organise "under civic associations, parties and organisations" and for "mothers in Tigray Region to stop their children from going to war". He stated that the TDP would support a "free, fair and democratic election" in Tigray Region.

Repression

In January 2019, Mulubirhan Haile and Gidana Medhin of the TDP claimed that it was being repressed, was the victim of hate speech, and was blocked from holding meetings for communicating with the wider public. They accused the TPLF of "false propaganda".

References

External links

* {{Africa in topic, List of political parties in Ethnic political parties in Ethiopia Political parties in Ethiopia