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Vol 54 No 7

Published 29th March 2013


Ethiopia

‘With the thoughts of Meles’

The EPRDF conference was meant to show unity and quell doubts about the Growth and Transformation Plan

Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has been unanimously confirmed as Chairman of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front for another two years. Nothing less was expected from a celebratory party conference reminiscent of Soviet and Chinese Communist congresses. The Ninth Congress met under the slogan ‘With the Thoughts of Meles, Stronger Organisation and Development Forces for the Renaissance!’ Although this was the first EPRDF conference without the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, he was ever-present, from cardboard cut-outs on the conference stage to portraits everywhere. At the opening ceremony, what was announced as a musical interlude turned into a two-hour theatrical rendition of Ethiopian history according to the EPRDF, with Meles in the lead role.

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