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Clarification by Chairman of Meeting
For the Election of Top EDA Leadership
Based on the congress resolution
for using the mechanism of consensus in deciding political issues,
chairmen and representatives of chairmen of 13 Eritrean organizations
met [up to the early hours of 9 May 2008] to elect chairman of the
Executive Office and chairman of the legislative council of the Eritrean
Democratic Alliance (EDA). When the election process was started, the
ELF chairman, Hussein Khalifa requested to take the floor and was
permitted to talk. Hussein stated that his organization was not
forwarinding a candidate of its own for the two posts in question but he
underlined that his organization was not ready to accept the candidature
of ELF-RC for the Executive Office. Long discussion followed with the
aim of persuading Hussein to change his mind. Likewise, many proposals
were tabled as compromise solutions to the impasse. One of the
compromise proposals was that the ELF, which held the executive office
in the past years, can still be given the chairmanship of the
legistlative body and thus avoid vetoing the ELF-RC candidature for the
post of of the executive body.
When all efforts made to persuade
the ELF leaadear [Hussein Khalifa] to withdraw his veto against the
ELF-RC candidate failed, I, in my capacity as chair of the meeting,
asked Woldeyesus Ammar, the ELF-RC chairman, to withdraw his candidate
for the said post. However, Woldeyesus argued that his organization
committed no crime to be barred from asking EDA leadership post and
refused to withdraw his candidate. Nevertheless, springing from the
interest of preserving unity of the alliance and with the concern of
avoiding another fragmentation in the alliance, the ELF-RC chairman
said his candidate has the legitimate right of retain candidature to the
post although the ELF-RC would not at the end veto any other candidate
who receives the approval of the rest of the 12 organizations. In this
manner, he offered an immence contribution for a way out [of the
impasse].
The discussion took quite a long
time although it continued in a serene and outcome-oriented atmosphere.
As such, it resumed receiving a new list of candidates for
consideration [by the 12 organizations]. The new candidates for the EDA
Executive Office were the following.
1.
Sheikh Khalil Mohammed
Amir [chairman of the Islamic Party for Justice and Developmen];
2.
Tewelde Ghebreselasse
[chairman of the Eritrean Peoples Democratic Front - Sagem];
3.
Adhanom Ghebremariam
[chairman of the Eritrean People’s Movement];
4.
Abdalla Mahmoud [head
of information in the Eritrean National Salvation Front];
5.
Beshir Isaak [chairman
of the Eritrean Federal Democratic Movement];
6.
Nur Idris [chairman of
the Eritrean Nahda Party];
Except Tewelde Ghebreselasse, all
the candidates withdraw their candidature one after the other, and this
manner, Tewelde Ghebreselasse was elected as the new chairman of the EDA
Executive Office.
Later on, Abdalla Mahmoud and Ali
Suleiman [of the Eritrean Congress Party/Islah] were listed as
candidates for the post of chairman of the EDA legislative council.
Abdalla Mahmoud received the approval of all organizations and was
elected as the new chairman of the EDA legislative council.
The decision of the ELF-RC to
accept the election of any consensual candidate has saved the day and
helped to avoid a crisis in the election of a new Executive Chairman.
Therefore, I say we must register commendation for the ELF-RC.
Mohammed Nur Ahmed,
Chairman of the meeting of 13
organizations for the election of chairmen for the Executive and
Legistlative bodies of the EDA.
9 May 2008
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