TPLF (Tigray People Liberation Front) elected Abay Woldu and Debretsion Gebremikael as Chairman and Deputy, respectively yesterday.

TPLF is one of the four member parties of the Ethiopian ruling party, EPRDF (Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front).

Founded in 1975, TPLF was led by the late PM Meles Zenawi since 1989.

The 45 member TPLF Council made the election on Tuesday.

However, it appears the Council didn’t elect a new member to fill the vacant seat in the TPLF and EPRDF Executive Committees previously held by Meles Zenawi.

Abay Woldu, the newly elected Chairman of TPLF, has been serving as Dep. Chair of TPLF and President of Tigray region since 2010.

Abay Woldu joined TPLF in the late 1970s and has served as member of the Executive Committees of EPRDF and TPLF since 2000.

He was administrator of Central zone of Tigray from 1992-2000. He became member of the regional government’s Cabinet and head of the region’s Agricultural Bureau from 2000 to 2010. He doubled as vice President of the region after 1998 until his election as President.

Abay has Masters degree and reportedly speaks Erob and Afar languages in addition to Amharic, Tigrigna and English.

Debretsion Gebremikael, the newly-elected Deputy Chairman of TPLF, joined the TPLF Executive Committee and is Minister of Communication and Information Technology, since 2010.
He joined TPLF during the days of armed struggle and has served as head of various department of Interior Ministry during the Transitional Government period from 1992-1995.

Since the mid-1990s, Debretsion served as Zone Administrator and Cabinet member of Tigray region government, then as Director of Information and Communication Technology Development Agency (ICTDA) of the Federal Government. His agency was upgraded to a Ministry in 2010 when he was appointed as its Minister.

Debretsion is member of the Executive Committees of EPRDF and TPLF currently.

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