It was his key ethnic support base and he may have been trying to win it back on 7 January when the government released political prisoners including regional leaders Jawar Mohammed and Bekele Gerba of the Oromo Federalist Congress (AC Vol 63 No 2 Prisoners' release sparks war cries)...
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Also freed were leading Oromo politicians Jawar Mohammed and Bekele Gerba of the Oromo Federal Congress (OFC) and Eskinder Nega chair of an Amhara political party based in Addis Ababa Balderas for True Democracy (AC Vol 62 No 13 War casts shadow over Abiy's election plan)...
The elections are vital for Abiy's project of establishing his Prosperity Party nationwide and to deal with the fall-out from a hunger-strike by leading Oromo opposition figures in detention including Jawar Mohammed and Bekele Gerba...
Abiy detained many of his Oromo critics including opposition leaders Jawar Mohammed and Bekele Gerba and placed former Defence Minister Lemma Megersa under house arrest earlier in the year (AC Vol 61 No 2 Regime reality check)...
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Jawar who commands great influence through his Oromia Media Network and social media is forming an alliance of sorts with other popular Oromo forces such as the former political prisoners Merera Gudina and Bekele Gerba along with the previously outlawed Oromo Liberation Front which played a big role in Ethiopia's transition in the early 1990s until it fell out with and was then routed by the TPLF...
The opposition including those that support May elections such as the Oromo Federalist Congress led by Merera Gudina and Bekele Gerba and Dawud Ibsa's OLF complains their members and supporters are being detained...
Similarly soothing mood music resulted from an apologetic speech to a huge crowd in Ambo and a dinner in Addis Ababa attended by opposition stalwarts such as Bekele Gerba...
That appeared to trigger the release on Tuesday of Bekele Gerba the most celebrated Oromo opposition leader who addressed a huge crowd in Adama city alongside senior figures from the EPRDF's Oromo wing the following day...
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There is little consensus on how to do it and a decision to release the popular Oromo opposition politician Bekele Gerba on bail was then reversed on 1 November...
EPRDF leaders and the security apparatus seem incapable or unwilling to arrange his early release alongside that of another popular OFC leader Bekele Gerba...