While last year's dismantling of the 'TPLF system' was lightning fast and radical, the construction of the framework needed to hold competitive elections is erratic and slow. Hence, will existing ethnic tensions prevent completion of the census, or, more likely, preclude its findings from being widely accepted? Party movesA similar scenario may also face Abiy's Oromo Democratic Party (ODP). We have not met any Ethiopian who is currently a die-hard defender of EPRDF; rather, the opposite – it is generally despised. Paradoxically, the only EPRDF party that has more or less sustained its cohesion and regained its grassroots support is the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

Source: Ethiopian News February 27, 2019 14:37 UTC