Browsing by Author "Ayele, Zemelak Ayitenew"

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    Controlling public health emergencies in federal systems
    (Routledge, 2021) Ayele, Zemelak Ayitenew; Fessha, Yonatan Tesfaye
    It was merely a day after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) a global pandemic that Ethiopia recorded its first case of infection. On 12 March 2020, a week after entering the country from Burkina Faso, a 48-year-old Japanese national presented himself at a public health centre in the capital city, Addis Ababa, and was diagnosed as having Covid-19. The number of cases in Ethiopia’s estimated population of 110 million climbed steadily in the following months, and by the end of October some 96,000 people were infected in what is one of the most populous countries in Africa.
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    EPRDF’s ‘menu of institutional manipulations’ and the 2015 regional elections
    (Regional & Federal Studies, 2018) Ayele, Zemelak Ayitenew
    Ethiopia is generally considered to have ‘a dominant party authoritarian’ system in which the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), along with its affiliates, enjoy electoral dominance. This contribution argues that EPRDF’s electoral dominance in the 2015 regional elections, indeed in all the elections held in the past two decades, is partly the result of the party’s use of what Schedler refers to ‘menu of institutional manipulations’ including electoral rules, government agencies, local authorities and even civil society organizations, to maintain its dominance. The semi-consociational system that guides the relationships of the constituent parties of EPRDF also provides the latter an electoral edge over the opposition parties which are often fragmented. The paper further argues that EPRDF’s vanguardist self-view, which is an offshoot of its ‘revolutionary democracy’ ideology, underpins its drive to be a dominant party and to use all of the institutional manipulations under its disposal.
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    The politics of sub-national constitutions and local government in Ethiopia
    (Perspectives on Federalism, 2014) Ayele, Zemelak Ayitenew
    The federal Constitution of Ethiopia provides the regional states - the constituent unit of the federation –with the power to draft, adopt and amend their own constitutions, thereby allowing each of the regional states to use its constitution, among others, to design and adopt a system and structure of local government fitting to its circumstances. This is particularly important since the regional states differ from each other in terms of territorial size, ethnic composition and economic and social circumstances, making a one-size-fits-all approach inappropriate to the design of local government. Nevertheless, all levels of government in Ethiopia are controlled, directly or indirectly, by one party; the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Party (EPRDF). Not only does it control all levels of government, the party has a highly centralised decision-making system founded on the principle of ‘democratic centralism’. Under this system, the party’s regional and local structures, which also control government institutions at those levels, are involved only in the execution of decisions passed by the centre. Given such a context, the establishment and empowerment of local government – which took place in two phases – were driven from the centre. The process of establishing local government was influenced by the political exigencies the ruling party faced at particular times and the choices it made in reaction to them. This has undermined the role of the regional states and the relevance of their constitutions in creating local government systems appropriate to their circumstances.
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    The rise of corruption in Ethiopia: Is a lack of constitutionalism to blame?
    (Oxford, 2020) Ayele, Zemelak Ayitenew
    In 2001, a political division arose within the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF)1 , arguably the core the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the ruling party and a coalition of four ethnic-based regional parties.2 There was a disagreement between the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi (also the former Chair of both EPRDF and TPLF) and some of the top brass of TPLF. The true cause of the dispute still remains unclear.3 It is clear though that Meles faced strong opposition from some of the most senior party members, including Gebru Asrat (the former president of Tigray, one of Ethiopia’s nine states), and Siye Abraha (the then Minister of Defense). Some of the leaders of the other three constituent units of EPRDF also sided with the dissenters as the division spread to these parties. 4 This led Meles to undertake an extensive political ‘purge’ within the TPLF and the other EPRDF member parties. ‘Dissenters’ were expelled from TPLF and, therefore, EPRDF. Those among the dissenters who had been elected to national and regional representative councils representing the party were informed that they had been ‘recalled by their constituencies’ and were dismissed from those councils.