The Somali Democratic Party (SDP; ), formerly the Ethiopian Somali People's Democratic Party, 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 ...

, created by the ruling

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) after refusing Somali demands for

self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...

in 1993. The EPRDF created a surrogate party called the Ethiopian Somali Democratic League which was one of many satellite organisations existing throughout Ethiopia."Ethnic Federalism and the Somali Region under the EPRDF"
in ''Ethiopia: Army Commits Executions, Torture, and Rape in Ogaden'', published 11 June 2008

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

(last accessed 10 December 2008) The organisation was led by Ahmed Shide.

History

Like the ESDL before it, the Somali Democratic Party was considered by many inhabitants of the

Somali Region The Somali Region (, , ), also known as Soomaali Galbeed () and officially the Somali Regional State, is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in eastern Ethiopia. It is the largest region of Ethiopia. The state borders the Ethiopian regions ...

to be an "EPRDF puppet", who accused its members "of brutal repression and systematic massacres in ensuring the region stays under firm control". In the early 2000s its chairman was Mohamoud Dirir Gheddi. The party observed its eleventh anniversary of its founding in Filtu, where numerous improvements to the infrastructure of the Liben Zone were announced. In December 2019, the party merged with the Afar National Democratic Party (ANDP), the Amhara Democratic Party (ADP), the

Benishangul-Gumuz People's Democratic Unity Front The Benishangul Gumuz People's Democratic Unity Front (BGPDUF; ) was a political party in Ethiopia. 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 p ...

(BGPDUF), 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 new Prosperity Party.

Notes

{{Ethiopian political parties 1998 establishments in Ethiopia 2019 disestablishments in Ethiopia Defunct political parties in Ethiopia Defunct socialist parties in Africa Democratic socialist parties in Africa Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front Political parties disestablished in 2019 Political parties established in 1998 Socialist parties in Ethiopia