By Haile-Gebriel Endashaw
Staff reporter
ADDIS ABABA – Gogot for Guraghe Unity and Justice said yesterday that it would make its demand for a self-regional state in a very short period, Ethiopia Insider reported. The source said last Monday, 13 March 2023 that the newly established party announced this stand while holding its first founding general assembly last Sunday.
The new party, Gogot indicates in its political program that its objective is to improve the role and contribution of Guraghe people in the socio-economic and political development of Ethiopia.
A point enshrined in the political program of the party states that, “the roles and representativeness of the Guraghe people in Ethiopian politics have ebbed away. This was highlighted in the founding general assembly. Chairperson of party Organizing Committee, Mohammed Abrar said in a speech he made on the occasion that, “Guraghe people have faced big political fractures”. Speaking of the significance of establishing the Gogot Party, he said that they “have started the [struggle] to fix up the fracture”.
“We have come together here thinking that our social representation and political involvement as the Guraghe community have been ebbing. It was a typical solution to organize ourselves as per the rules of the country in a bid to resist problems inflicted against Guraghe People. Our timidness and retreat on this issue are the enforcing causes for the establishment of this party,” Mohammed said.
Deputy Chairperson of the party organizing committee, Melaku Sahille, said that the issue of owning regional state, which was raised by the Guraghe people, should be achieved in a very short period. “This is the demand forwarded legally and authorized by the constitution,” he said.
Melaku said during the founding general assembly that regarding the establishment of self-ruled regional administration, Gogot announced its stand through the ratified political program. Though the demand of owning self-regional state went through all rules and due processes, the Guraghe people have sustained unnecessary sufferings and abuses for failing to get due support from the ruling and opposition parties, Melaku said.
The political party program of Gogot indicates that the party establishment was made necessary to direct the Guraghe peoples’ political demands legally and in an organized manner.
Gogot Party received the temporary permit from the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia three months back in November 2022. Then it gathered signatures of founding members from six regional states and two town administrations. Members of the party organizing committee told Ethiopia Insider that the committee has collected 13,000 signatures in Somali, Harari, Oromia, Sidama, South Western Ethiopia Regional States including Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa City Administrations.
A political party is established at national level if it has 10,000 members, according to the electoral law and ethics of the political parties. The law dictates that 30 percent of the members should be residents of a Regional State. The rest must be residing in four regions to the minimum.
The party held its founding general assembly last Sunday in the presence of 572 members. The assembly elected members of the central committee including audit and inspection. The general assembly has also ratified party bylaws, a program and founding speech.
It is enshrined in the party political program that Gogot pursues moderate liberalism. It is also indicated that the party works so that Guraghe language can become the working language of the Federal Government.
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As long as the constitution remains in place, and is not being overhauled to adopt a new system of dividing Ethiopia, it is but logical that the Gurage people’s request to have a “killil” of their own must be granted. Denying them such request lacks not only justification of any kind, but would be a very clear violation of the constitution itself. Nevertheless, I do not believe that dividing Ethiopia along ethnic line, such as the killil system, has produced the desired effect of creating a stable, peaceful and prosperous nation. To the contrary, it is the one that has led us to the present predicament: a bitterly divided nation heading towards an uncertain future, and the possible disintegration of an ancient country. I very strongly feel that the first order of this government should have been to hold a plebiscite to retain or rewrite a constitution that has been the source of much division and acrimony. But this seems, unfortunately, a pipe dream!!