Ethiopian PM Abiy calls for peace at launch of party's first congress

Prosperity Party kicked off its first ever congress on Friday. During three day over 1,600 members are expected to attend. If the ruling party pledged to deal with corruption and continue to defend Ethiopia’s sovereignty, peace was the most pressing challenge. Ethiopia’s ruling Prosperity Party launched its first congress on Friday.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed attended the ceremony of the party he created in 2019. The Prosperity Party claims over 11 million registered and contributing members. 

The three-day congress is held hunder the theme "From Challenge to Elevation".  In addition to party leaders and other members, representatives of foreign political parties were present. According to local news reports, Uganda’s National Resistance movement and South Africa’s ANC were also in Addis Ababa.

If Abyi's party pledged to deal with corruption and continue to defend Ethiopia’s sovereignty, the most urgent challenge was to bring about peace.

" Peace is more than anything for Ethiopia because we just came out of war. Forces who think they are powerful need to work towards peace, discussion, rest, and development, Abiy said . All other options are not beneficial for Ethiopia and Ethiopians. I want to encourage all of us to stand for peace and democracy together ."

The Prosperity Party was established after Prime Minister Abiy after he initiated a process to replace the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, a coalition of four major ethnic-based parties and three support parties  which were crafted by Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) under the leadership of the late Meles Zenawi in 1991.

Disagreeing on the formation of a single united party, TPLF parted ways with member parties. Some analysts belive it was one of the factors that contributed to the tension with the Federal government which turned into the ongoing war in Tigray.