One of the main opposition parties UDJP(Unity for Democracy and Justice Party, aka Andinet) signed a premerger agreement with a less known party ‘Berhan’ on May 27/2011.

The joint statement released on the occasion states:

‘the two parties have concluded their negotiations successfully and now are ready for merger, subject to the approval of the general assemblies of the two parties’

The statement doesn’t indicate the terms of the agreement, such as the name of the merged party, power sharing, etc.

The Amharic version of the statement seems to imply that the pre-merger agreement is meant to facilitate cooperation until the merger materializes.

It is to be recalled that UDJ had been engaged in protracted negotiation with its breakaway faction led by Mesfin Woldemariam (frm. AAU prof.) and also with AEUP(All Ethiopian Unity Party), which is led by Eng. Hailu Shawel. However, neither bear fruits.

The breakaway faction blamed UDJ leaders for the failure, while UDJ refused to comment on it. On the other hand, the UDJ and AEUP negotiation broke down because the latter demanded UDJ withdraws from Medrek, the six parties opposition coalition. AEUP’s insists on merger, as a coalition is doomed to fail. Further, AEUP claims, the difference between multi-national and identity based parties is so wide to bring them under one umbrella. It should be noted that UDJ and AEUP consider themselves as multi-national parties.

[Further details and background will be provided soon in this blog]

Read below the joint statement – both the English and Amharic version.

***************