Oromiya president suspended from party

Kuma Demeksa, the president of the Oromiya Regional State and secretary-general of the Oromo People’s Democratic Organisation (OPDO), has been suspended from the organisation’s central committee after being accused of corruption, antidemocratic practices and abuse of power, the official Ethiopia News Agency reported on July 23. In a statement issued on Monday entitled “ODPO is committed as ever before to continue the struggle for the rights and privileges of the Oromo people”, the organisation said central committee members Chala Hordofa, Diriba Arkona and Yasin Husayn had also been suspended from the leadership. Kuma’s suspension comes a month after Ethiopian President Negaso Gidada was dismissed from the OPDO central committee, after being accused of abandoning his public responsibilities and aligning himself with a dissident group expelled from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front central committee in May. Kuma’s dismissal was announced at the conclusion of a series of “self-evaluation” meetings during which the OPDO leadership was scrutinised for its performance and conduct over the past 10 years since the organisation was formed and became a member of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front coalition. The meetings were held over a period of more than four weeks. An ad hoc forum formed from the organisation’s membership and senior cadres to guide the renewal of the party, had found in its appraisal that the leadership had been engaged in acts of “self-enrichment, nepotism and the violation of citizens’ rights”. The practices witnessed within the organisation had become a major impediment to economic development and social progress in Oromiya State and an obstacle to applying the principles of revolutionary democracy in the country, the statement said. The OPDO statement charged that “certain elements” within the party had rallied around an antidemocratic splinter group within the system, which held views contrary to the interests of the larger membership and the Oromo people. Although the group was intent on stifling the renewal movement, it was now set on a secure path, the statement added.