Dire Dawa Elected a New Mayor [Analysis]

The Council of Dire Dawa City Administration elected Speakers of the Council, Mayor, and Dep. Mayor to serve for the next two and half years.

In its session this morning, the Council elected Biftu Mohammed (SPDP) and Asrat Chala (OPDO) as Speakers and Dep. Speaker of the Council. It also installed Ased Ziad (OPDO) and Harbi Bouh (SPDP) as Mayor and Deputy Mayors of the Administration. The Council had approved the appointment of Heads of Capacity Building Bureau and Rural & Agricultural Bureau, though it has postponed of the appointment of the rest members of the new Cabinet.

Adem Farah, former Mayor of Dire Dawa, now V/President of Somali State

The 189 members of the Council are elected by the April 2008 local elevtions. In its inaugural session on June 2008, the Council elected Adem Farah of Somali People’s Democratic Party (SPDP) as Mayor and Sheriff Mohammed from Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) as his Deputy to serve the first half of its 5-years term. The outgoing Mayor Adem Farah is elected as V/President of Somali State on Sept. 04/2010. [Click here for the list of the new Somali State Officials.]

Thus, a new Cabinet will be charged with the Executive functions for the next two years and half, that is, until the next election for the Council is to be held.

The 40-40-20 Scheme
The change of leadership is a result of a deal, between EPRDF and SPDP at the beginning of 2006, to rotate the Mayoralty between SPDP and OPDO/EPRDF. According to the sharing arrangement, SPDP receives 40% of the political offices and the rest goes to EPRDF; i.e., 40% to OPDO/EPRDF and 20% to the rest 3 parties of EPRDF.

This political deal had never been made known to the public, save to members of the concerned political parties. Yet, it has been applied gradually since the second half of 2006. That is when the provisional Cabinet of Mayor Fiseha Zerihun, now Mayor of Mekele City, had been replaced by another provisional Cabinet led by Abdulaziz Mohammed, who is currently V/President of Oromia.[Click here for the list of the new Oromia State Officials.]

The new Cabinet, appointed by the federal government in July 2006, had a Cabinet of 13 members, of whom five are OPDO/EPRDF, five SPDP, one ANDM/EPRDF and two are members of SEPDM/EPRDF. The new Cabinet applied, in the subsequent month, when it appointment Office & Department Heads, and Chief Executives and Managers for Kebeles.

Abdulaziz Mohamed, former Mayor of Dire Dawa, now V/President of Oromia State

The first ever-elected Council of Dire Dawa, on mid-2008, epitomized the formula in its composition. In the election, SPDP and OPDO/EPRDF placed an equal number of candidates covering 80% of the Council seats, while ANDM/EPRDF, SEPDM/EPRDF, and TPLF/EPRDF placed 12%, 8%, and 2% of the Candidates.

The sharing arrangement became the composition of the Council automatically, since EPRDF and SPDP won all the seats of the Council. Thus, as the administration became a coalition of the two parties, it guaranteed the continuation of the ‘40-40-20’ arrangement for both sides. Of course, the gerrymandering of electoral constituencies that allotted 60% of the seats to the rural, despite 56% of the residents are urbanites had guaranteed the outcome, to some degree.

The Council, then, elected an SPDP member, Adem Farah, to assume the Mayoralty that had been held by an OPDO member, Abdulaziz for the previous two years. Now, after about two and half years, it is time for an OPDO member to be installed as a Mayor of Dire Dawa City Administration.

The Prologue
The arrangement is not dictated by population composition, which comprises 40.08% Oromo, 24.24% Somali, 20% Amhara, and 14% belonging to others ethnic groups, according to 2007 Census. It is an outcome of a temporary arrangement put in place until the final fate of the City is decided. At least that is what the Dire Dawa Administration Charter states; i.e., issued on July 30/’04, by the Federal legislature. That is when Dire Dawa became a Charter city and formally recognized as an entity accounted to the federal government, though it had always been under the Office of Prime Minister.[Click Here to Download the Charter]

It was on 1993 that the Council of Representatives of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE) placed Dire Dawa under the Prime Minister’s Office on a temporary basis. The decision was prompted by its inability to resolve the claim of Oromia or Somalia states on Dire Dawa. Nonetheless, the temporary had became permanent, except on the name. Neither the Council of TGE, nor the House of Peoples’ Representatives of FDRE had tabled the issue for deliberation, let alone resolve it. It took a decade for the federal government to endow the City with a legal framework that enables self-administration, pending the claims of the two states.

Fiseha Zerihun, former Mayor of Dire Dawa, now Mayor of Mekele

The reorganizing mission of Fisha’s Cabinet was supposed to be completed by the end of 2005 and replaced by an elected council. However, the Federal government postponed the election until 2008. Moreover, a new Cabinet led by Abdulaziz Mohammed was appointed, by the federal government, to run the administration for almost two years in the run-up to the mid-2008 election.

Though the skepticism on the current arrangement, be it the 40-40-20 scheme or the rotation of  Mayors, is justified, the appointment of officials who are well acquainted with city is to be commended, at least as it address one of the demands of the residents. Same as the previous Mayor the current Mayor is familiar with the city. The newly elected Mayor Ased Ziad has been serving as Head of the Civil Service Commission until today, while the new Deputy Harbi Bouh has been heading the Capacity Building Bureau.

For an in-depth and informative analysis of the matter, read an Amharic article titled ‹‹ድሬዳዋ እና የፌዴራሉ ብዥታ››. [Click Here: ‘Dire Dawa and the Federal Indecision’.]

ACRONYMS
EPRDF – Ethiopian peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Party
TPLF – Tigray Peoples’ Liberation Front
ANDM – Amhara Nation Democratic Movement
OPDO – Oromo Peoples’ Democratic Organization
SPEDM – Southern Ethiopian Peoples’ Democratic movement
ANDP – Afar National Democratic Party
SPDP – Somali people’s Democratic Party

Daniel Berhane