The Prosperity Party has no Right to Misuse and Abuse the OLF name and defame the Oromo people
OLF Statement- October 8, 2021
The OLF has repeatedly informed peoples of Ethiopia and the international community that the Ethiopian national election held on June 21, 2021, was totally unacceptable by any standard as the process and outcome. It was sub-standard and immoral. The election does not correspond to free and fair election standard. From the beginning to end the process and outcome of the election was full of irregularities and in total delusion.
Literary there was no Election that took place in FDRE Ethiopia as the ruling group claim but it was drama planned and executed by the ruling group to manipulate and misuse the democratic process for their own objectives. The election was an event in which the Prosperity Party (PP) has turned itself into the ‘government’ to trickster the Ethiopian peoples, particularly the Oromo people. In the first instance, the establishment of the PP itself was illegal as there was no constitutional mandate for Dr Abiy Ahmed to dismantle the EPRDF without following legal procedures and replace it by Unitary Prosperity Party. This illegal party has no mandate to rule the country or to organize the national election. In addition, there were series of constitutional crises since Dr Abiy came to power and clear manipulation of resources and power to institute the party (the Prosperity Party) as the Government using sham election. The democratic institutions, such as electoral board, were handicapped and arms twisted systematically to fit to the PP’s Objectives. There was no participation of opposition parties in the election as they were intentionally marginalized from the beginning and ultimately pushed away. In this regard the Ethiopian peoples and the world community know that OLF had been forcefully pushed out of the election. Similarly, the OFC had been pushed out in a similar manner. Even other nominal opposition parties who have loyalty to the PP, but had little divergent ideas, had been either systematically pushed away or harassed during the election.
The election was also conducted intentionally under intense and chaotic security situations and in conflict environment. During the election there were widespread large-scale war between the ruling group and insurgents in many parts of the country including Western Oromia, Southern Oromia, Northern Oromia, Central Oromia, Afar and Ogaden regions and the conventional war in the Tigray region in the Northern Ethiopia. The election was carried out while many parts of Oromia are under military command post and while intense fighting between insurgents and the government forces were taking place in many parts of the country. The people in conflict zones were unable to go to election polls; the polling stations were fully controlled by loyal PP soldiers; there were no independent observers as many international community observers boycotted. Surprisingly, in many places the supporters of the PP were assigned as observers. Those who managed to attend the polling stations gave their vote under fear and intense pressure as they had been threatened by the soldiers of the ruling party and enforced directly or indirectly to vote for members of the PP. By and large, the election was carried out under war and conflict, coercive environment, and strict control of the ruling group. In general, the Prosperity Party conducted the June 21, 2021 election without any competition and declared it-self a landside winner.
Currently, Dr Abiy’s unitary party renewed itself and Dr Abiy is forming a government to realize their objective. In this process we denounce, in a strict possible term, the misuse and abuse of the OLF name and the Oromo people in the process of the so-called government formation of bogus coalition. The Government of Dr. Abiy is trying to deceive the Oromo people and the international community by illegally using the OLF name for legitimacy. This is particularly abuse of the intelligence of all and demeaning to the Oromo youth who sacrificed thousands of their precious lives to overthrow the TPLF-EPRDF led ruling party and gave Dr Abiy an opportunity to come to power.
Hence, we want to remind all peoples of Ethiopia to seek solutions for these repeated and perennial crises facing our peoples and the country. And therefore, we strongly call peoples of Ethiopia and political parties to focus on the following resolution and work toward its implementation without any further delay:
1. We reiterate that the Oromia citizens strengthen the Oromia Regional State National Transitional Government to restore peace and security in their region and to provide meaningful hope to citizens.
2. We would like to urge the Ethiopian peoples to pave the way for the Establishment of Government of National Salvation of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia as per the Ethiopian constitution by involving multi-nation societies and work together for peace and stability and organize free and fair election that reflect the long aspirations of Ethiopian peoples.
3. We urge the international communities to unite in seeking lasting solution to multifaceted crisis in Ethiopia and pressure all the stakeholders for peace and security and to establish a transitional system that paves the way for political dialogue.
Victory to the Masses! Oromo Liberation Front. October 8, 2021