Forum set to make transition to a coalition

By Melaku Demissie

Forum for Democratic Dialogue in Ethiopia, which was established a year ago by six political parties and two prominent individuals, announced Thursday in a press conference it held that it planned to form a coalition based on the endorsed joint intermediate program and statute.

Representatives of the Forum said that they submitted their joint political accord and statute for approval to the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) on Tuesday, which enables them to create the coalition.

They said that an agreement had been reached on several political issues.

The statement indicated that members of the Forum will stand in unison for the country’s sovereignty and firmly work to abolish injustice and discriminatory practices to strengthen unity through equality. It added that the Forum will work untiringly to ensure respect for the rights of individuals, nations and nationalities and peoples as well as groups.

The forum members expressed their stand that an independent justice system needed to be established and that the rule of law ought to be observed in the country. They affirmed that they will struggle for the realization of freedom of organization and expression, free and fair elections which will be monitored by independent election executives, as well as a multi-party democratic order.

With regard to foreign policy, the Forum’s program indicated that the coalition will engage in effort, both legally and diplomatically, to secure a sea outlet for the country and to make the Port of Assab a part of Ethiopia.

The members further said that they had tabled broad social and economic policy alternatives. Accordingly, the incumbent government’s “developmental state”, which espouses an agricultural-led industrial development policy, will be replaced by a [policy] which ensures a proportional growth of the industrial, agriculture and the service sectors.

They said they will advocate a policy which grants farmers ownership of land adding they opposed the existing practice which, under the pretext that land belongs to the government and the public, displaces farmers in large numbers and denies them security of tenure.

They said despite differences on some political issues, they decided to operate as a coalition in the belief that the issues on which a common position had been adopted can take them a long way and that they will solve the basic problems of the Ethiopian people.

Currently, the number of member political parties of the Forum has reached eight.

Source: The Reporter.

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