Parties to Negotiate on Nat’l Consensus

Addis Ababa June 05/2018 The 16 national political parties have decided today to pursue negotiating on issues brought up by each party under the national consensus agenda. After an extended debate on issues of organizing topics submitted by each party, the proposal of the Group of 10 for the establishment of a facilitating committee that will eventually establish national dialogue institute was rejected and leaders of the parties decided to continue discussing topics submitted by the 14 parties. On the other hand, Ethiopian Peace and Democratic Party, All Oromo People's Democratic Party, and All Ethiopian National Movement argued that the submitted topics be organized by professionals. The ruling party EPRDF welcomed both proposals but opposed the idea of setting up a separate institute for national dialogue as that will be determined during the negotiation. Gadaa System Advancement Party rejected all the suggestions forwarded and requested the negotiation to continue right away on the basis of the regulation at hand. Unable to close the gap in the proposed ideas, leaders of the negotiation decided to start the dialogue on June 12, 2018.