Contending Political Parties Vow to Bring Youth to Leadership Positions

Addis Ababa January 14/2019 Contending political parties revealed that they have been exerting efforts to bring the youth to the forefront in order to engage them in high level decision-making and leadership positions.

The contending political parties, two national and one regional, are Ethiopian Federal Democratic Unity Forum (Medrek) and Ethiopian National Movement as well as Arena Tigray Party.

In an exclusive interview with ENA, Medrek Chairman Million Tumato said his party is working hard to encourage the youth to actively take part in the leadership of the party.

Nurturing the youth to participate directly in strategizing and meeting the political goal of the party and leading the party is crucial, he noted.

Subsequent to the efforts Medrek has been making in this respect, a certain level of achievement has been registered, according to the chairman.

Million said, “The percentage of youth and women leaders in the party has reached 20 percent. There is of course serious effort to increase the leadership of the youth since almost 70 percent of the population of Ethiopia is youth.”

According to him, democracy and development are unthinkable without the involvement of the youth and women at high level.

The political wing of the youth in the party is created to develop the political leadership and participation of the youth in particular, he pointed out.

Ethiopian National Movement Chairman, Yilkal Getnet said consolidating the involvement of the youth in leadership helps the youth to contribute creatively and utilize their talent in building democracy.

The youth should, therefore, be encouraged to take leadership positions in political parties and contribute creatively to the process of building the parties and democracy at large, he stated.

“In our party we are mainly working to bring the youth and women to leadership positions. We have an internal regulation which focuses on bringing the youth and talented individuals to leadership,” Yilkal added.

He believes that the youth are farsighted and have special talent to achieve their dreams and translate their ideas into reality.

According to Yilkal, creating opportunities for the youth to take part in the political and decision-making processes is very crucial for countries like Ethiopia which aspire to build strong and democratic country.

Arena Tigray Party Chairman, Abraha Desta said young politicians are getting the chance to get involved in high level political decision of the party. 

Although the regional party Arena Tigray was established by senior politicians, the leadership is now transferred to the youth, he added.

Abraha said, “We believe that the youth should lead with new political thinking because the political thinking of the 1960s cannot bring democracy and unity. Rather it sows seeds of skepticism, distrust and animosity between political parties. We must bring new political thinking that suits the youth.”