1987 Constitution of Ethiopia

The Constitution of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (DVR ) of 1987 was the third constitution in the history of Ethiopia. She was the first and also the only constitution in the period of the reign of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam 1974-1991. The Constitution of 1987 has replaced the Constitution of the Empire of Ethiopia in 1955.

Content

The Constitution ended the rule of the Dergue military government, a Provisional Military Administrative Board, formed the Ethiopian state new Soviet- style and ushered in the period formally the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (DVR ) on a legal basis, a. The Constitution itself was based on the Soviet Constitution of 1977. She had been introduced as part of the transformation process of the military dictator, Mengistu after a Marxist Unity Party, the Communist Workers' Party of Ethiopia was founded by the government in 1984. So the Ethiopian state was a one-party system under the Workers' Party of Ethiopia, the Unity Party was closely intertwined with the state.

Development

The Constitution of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia was adopted after a referendum on 1 February 1987 by the people and entered into force on 22 February 1987. Of the officially registered 14,570,011 voters gave their votes from 14,035,718. Thus, the voter turnout was 96.3 %. Of these officially voted 81% for the Constitution and 19 % against. The claiming to be affected by a military coup of 1974 system should only get by this Constitution a legal basis.

The constitution was suspended and only in 1991, when the interim government to crack under the Ethiopian People 's Revolutionary Democratic Front of, a rebel organization and subsequent coalition government, the power in the capital Addis Ababa. The Constitution was replaced by the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in 1995, which abolished the centralized system.