Government

Between 1974 and 1987, Ethiopia was governed by the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), also known as the Derg. The council came to power following the deposition of Emperor Haile Selassie I on September 12, 1974. It suspended the revised constitution of 1955 and disbanded the bicameral parliament. In March 1975 the council abolished Ethiopia’s hereditary monarchy. The council was made up of about 80 people, most of whom were members of the armed forces or police. It was headed by a chairman, who was the country’s chief government official.

A program published by the council in late 1974 called for the state to play a leading role in the country’s economy and the creation of a specifically Ethiopian brand of socialism. It also called for the establishment of a single, all-embracing political party. The Union of Ethiopian Marxist-Leninist Organizations was created in 1977 as an umbrella party of various political organizations. In 1984 these organizations were disbanded and replaced with the newly created Workers’ Party of Ethiopia, which functioned as the nation’s only legal political party until 1991, when other parties were legalized. The party changed its name to the Ethiopian Democratic Unity Party in 1990, after relaxing its ideology.

In 1991 the Marxist-Leninist government was ousted by two allied rebel movements, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF). Under a provisional charter, an 87-member elected Council of Representatives chose a president to govern Ethiopia, pending general elections. A separate government was established in Eritrea, which was then a province of Ethiopia. Eritrea was recognized as an independent republic in May 1993. In June 1994 Ethiopian voters elected representatives to the Constituent Assembly charged with drafting a new constitution. The constitution was adopted in December, and in May 1995 a new legislative body, the Council of People’s Representatives, was elected.

Executive and Legislature

According to the 1994 constitution, the head of state is the president, who is nominated by the Council of People’s Representatives. A president may not serve more than two six-year terms. The legislature also nominates a prime minister from among its members. The prime minister is the chief executive and heads a Council of Ministers, made up of representatives from a coalition of parties constituting a majority in the legislature. The Council of People’s Representatives consists of a maximum of 550 directly elected members; at least 20 of these representatives must be members of minority ethnic groups.

Local Government

Ethiopia is made up of nine regions, most with a distinct ethnic majority. Each region has a regional council that may establish lower levels of jurisdiction to allow people to participate in self-government. In accordance with the 1994 constitution, individual ethnic groups within a region have the right to form their own regions or to secede from the federation.

Judiciary

The Ethiopian judicial system consists of two principal branches; the Federal Supreme Court has final jurisdiction over federal cases, and the regional supreme courts have final jurisdiction over regional concerns. Regional supreme courts may also serve as federal first-instance courts. Federal judges are nominated by the prime minister and appointed after approval by the Council of Peoples’ Representatives.

Political Divisions

In 1994 Ethiopia was divided into nine regions composed of specific ethnic groups. The regions, which have a significant degree of autonomy, are Tigray; Afar; Amhara; Oromia; Somalia; Benshangul-Gumaz; Gambela; Harar; and the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples, which comprises about 41 ethnic groups.

Defense

In the late 1980s the Ethiopian army had 313,000 members; the air force, 4000; and the navy, 1800. Following the overthrow of Ethiopia’s Marxist-Leninist government in 1991, the armed forces ceased to exist. Army equipment was divided between the EPRDF and the EPLF. Today membership in the EPRDF is estimated at 90,000. In the late 1970s and in the 1980s Ethiopia received military equipment from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) to use in fighting rebel forces; Cuban troops were stationed in Ethiopia from 1977 until 1989.

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