Coalition for Unity and Democracy
The Coalition for Unity and Democracy ( Amharic ቅንጅት ለአንድነት እና ዴሞክራሲ, nationally known by the acronym Qinijit or Kinijit, English Coalition for Unity and Democracy Parties, abbreviated CUD or CUDP ) is the most important opposition party alliance and the former largest party coalition in Ethiopia. The alliance includes four parties that organized their campaign for the parliamentary elections on 15 May 2005 together.
Chairman of the Alliance is Hailu Shawul. The four member parties, the Ethiopian Democratic League, the Gesamtäthiopische unit organization, the United Ethiopian Democratic Party - Medhin and Rainbow Ethiopia: Movement for Democracy and Social Justice.
The Coalition for Unity and Democracy was the end of September of 2005, to unite into a political party, the unity for democracy and justice. After the collapse of the CUD by co-option, arrest and emigration and internal disagreements, currently is forming a new coalition of six opposition parties in the Forum for Democratic Dialogue in Ethiopia, where the unit newly established democracy and justice belongs as well as the second largest represented in Parliament United Ethiopian Democratic Forces opposition coalition.
Positions and supporters
The CUD is dominated by Amhara and attaches great importance to the unity of Ethiopia. They criticized the ruling EPRDF since 1991 that it allowed the independence of Eritrea in 1993. Much of its leaders supported the Eritrea - Ethiopia War 1998-2000 and wants to put pressure on Eritrea with respect to the disputed border areas continue. The CUD rejects introduced by the EPRDF " ethnic federalism " (see Administrative divisions of Ethiopia ), as this would harm the cohesion of the country. Economic policy, it stands for a liberal course, it seems to be a privatization of land - which is owned by the state - to advocate.
Support received by the gesamtäthiopische nationalism of the CUD mainly by the Amhara and the Gurage. According to one study, the CUD was also awarded tend to have more votes in urban areas, in ethnically mixed areas and in those where the proportion living below the poverty line is higher in the 2005 elections. However, you cut in areas worse, where more people received food aid, because the recipients of such aid voted more for the EPRDF.
Parliamentary elections
After it became clear over the country, that the ruling Ethiopian People 's Revolutionary Democratic Front of the election would lose in 2005, the government stopped the official vote count and declared himself the victor. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi took over the general command of the military and the federal police, imposed curfews and banned all demonstrations across the country. Hailu Shawul was placed under house arrest after the CUD was accused by the government of supporting violent street protests, in which more than 20 people were killed by the Federal Police.
Official results according won the CUD 109 of 545 parliamentary seats, including all 23 seats in the capital Addis Ababa, 50 of 138 seats in the Amhara region, 18 seats of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region, 16 seats of the Oromia Region, and one seat each of Dire Dawa and Benishangul Gumuz.
Repression
After the CUD accused the ruling party EPRDF coalition of election fraud, she called on 6 November 2005 on the week of the strike, as well as to boycott the run of EPRDF members and companies of the Parliament. In response, the government lifted the immunity of elected representatives of the opposition alliance and arrested a large part of the members of the CUD Group.
Almost the entire leadership of the CUD, including the elected mayor of Addis Ababa, Birhanu Nega, have been in custody for nearly two years. Demonstrations that took place on all continents and countless petitions have not yet led to a release of the prisoners. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other organizations take the view that these CDU politicians are unjustly imprisoned. Nevertheless, on 16 July 2007 the Supreme Court of Ethiopia has for 30 of the democratically elected representatives of the people to life imprisonment has.