Meles Zenawi: I am in the office until 2015

By ARGAW ASHINE, NMG correspondent in Addis Ababa Posted Wednesday, September 9 2009 at 10:08

In Summary

• The 54 year-old former guerrilla leader was convinced by party members to stay on.
• Ethiopia’s next general election is scheduled for June 2010.

Ethiopia Prime Minster Meles Zenawi will seek for a new five-year term, his ruling party announced on Tuesday.

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The 54 year-old former guerrilla leader, who has been in power for 18 years, was convinced by party members to stay on.

The Ethiopian People Democratic Front (EPRDF) council underlined that the Ethiopian people and his party need Mr Zenawi for one more term at the end of a two day annual gathering.

“Meles is playing a key role in transforming Ethiopia....” EPRDF said in a statement.

In recent months, EPRDF’s chairman Zenawi has said he plans to go in 2010 if his party accept his resignation.

The council extensively debated on the issue and agreed to keep Mr Zenawi in office for one until 2015.

Ethiopia’s next general election is scheduled for June 2010.

The PM has increasingly become a champion of African in international forums.

However, at home he is accused of a poor human rights record and oppression against opposition politicians and the media.

Last week, Mr Zenawi was elected to represent Africa in the climate change talks in Denmark, Copenhagen.

Daily Nation

Climate Change Meeting Will Undermine Meles Zenawi's Democracy

August 24, 2009, 10:20 am

By Roger Bate

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has always been shrewd in his courting of world leaders and deflection of his own failings. By talking tough over Somalia and terrorism he has won over many hawkish conservatives, who have been happy to gloss over his oppressive domestic record in order to have an ally in the Horn of Africa. He has done little to improve property right ownership in his country and so kept the likelihood of famine ever-present and himself in power, while managing to blame others for the poverty of his people. And now he’s hosting a meeting on climate change in order to further his Western and African credentials. Regardless of the stated aims of this meeting—to provide an African coordinated position on climate change—it is more of the same; deflection of the causes of famine and poverty and holding out a begging bowl to the West, which will be further used to undermine Ethiopian democracy. He and his African Union colleagues will once again use our largesse to suppress their masses—and all in the name of climate change. And of course Western leaders will love pressure from Africa on why they need to reduce their greenhouse emissions. Expect more of this tragic drivel in the run up to Copenhagen’s December climate jamboree.
The American

Ethiopian PM says ready to step down: FT

AFP

AFP
LONDON (AFP) — Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has had "enough" after 18 years in power and would be willing to leave office to make way for a new ... read more

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