Mekelle፡Telaviv, Nairobi, Pretoria, London, (Tigray Herald)
TPLF Rejects Re-Registration, demands full legal reinstatement
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front has rejected a re-registration process proposed by the Ethiopian National Elections board, insisting on full legal reinstatement as a political party in line with the 2022 Pretoria peace agreement.
In a statement issued on Friday, the TPLF warned that the failure to restore its legal status could have “dangerous consequences” for the 2022 peace deal, which ended the two years of brutal war on Tigray.
“The next step after lifting the terrorist designation of the party should have been the restoration of the TPLF’s cancelled legal status,” the statement said. The party accused the government of turning the issue into a technical matter, undermining both the letter and spirit of the Pretoria accord.
The TPLF was removed from Ethiopia’s list of terrorist organizations in November 2022 following the peace agreement, but it has not regained its previous legal status as a political party.
The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia has maintained that the TPLF must re-register under a revised political parties proclamation, saying there is no legal mechanism for reinstatement.
However the TPLF rejected the requirement, saying it undermines the Pretoria Agreement’s principle of mutual recognition between the signatories.
The party called on the federal government to refrain from issuing statements that contradict from the sprit and letter of the Pretoria Agreement through the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia.
