Government Ethiopia

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Ethiopia’s Judicial branch

Ethiopia is governed under the constitution of 1994, which provides for a president as chief of state and a prime minister as head of government.

The bicameral parliament consists of the 110-seat Council of the Federation, which represents the ethnic interests of the regional governments, and the 547-seat Council of People’s Representatives, whose members are popularly elected and who in turn elect the president. The prime minister is designated by the party in power following legislative elections.

The president and vice president of the Federal Supreme Court are recommended by the prime minister and appointed by the House of People’s Representatives. For the other federal judges, the prime minister presents candidates selected by the Federal Judicial Administrative Council to the House of People’s Representatives for appointment.

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The Ethiopian legislative branch

Ethiopia is governed under the constitution of 1994, which gives for a president as chief of state and a prime minister as head of government.

The prime minister is designated by the party in power following legislative elections.
The Federal Parliamentary Assembly has two chambers:

• the Council of People’s Representatives with 547 members, elected for five-year terms in single-seat constituencies; and

• the Council of the Federation with 110 members, one for each nationality, and one additional representative for each one million of its population, chosen by the regional councils, which may elect them themselves or through popular elections

Various opposition parties are represented in the Parliament where representatives from Oromia state hold the most number and representatives from the Amhara State hold the second most position, in correlation with the population order of the corresponding states.

Various opposition parties hold many positions in the Ethiopian parliament including:

• United Ethiopian Democratic Forces
• United Ethiopian Democratic Party-Medhin Party
• Somali People’s Democratic Party
• EDL
• Gambela People’s Democratic Movement
• All Ethiopian Unity Party
• Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement
• Benishangul-Gumuz People’s Democratic Unity

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Ethiopian police massacre

On October 18, 2006 an independent statement said Ethiopian police massacred 193 protesters, mainly in the capital Addis Ababa, in the violence of June and November following the May 2005 elections.

The report was released before the official independent report was given to the parliament. The leak made by Ethiopian judge Wolde-Michael Meshesha found that the government had hidden the true extent of deaths at the hands of the police.

This leak also brought more accusations that the opposition party which aggravated the riots was trying to damage the reputation of the government by leaking the inquisition illegally.

Gemechu Megerssa, a member of the independent Inquiry commission, said Mr. Meshesha taking the report “out of context and presenting it to the public to exaggerate the situation for his political end is highly unethical.

The occurrence is just one of many instances of human rights violations in Ethiopia in recent times. In relation to the riots, some of the top leaders of the opposition CUD party were arrested on charges of stirring the violence and “outrage against the constitution.”

The Ethiopian court convicted 38 of the top CUD leaders. Nevertheless after various negotiations to solve the deadlock via a political agreement, the convicted CUD leaders signed a document accepting their “mistakes” and a responsibility ranging from partial to full accountability for the post election violence.

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