The Benishangul Gumuz People's Democratic Unity Front (BGPDUF; am, የቤንሻንጉልና ጉሙዝ ሕዝቦች ዴሞክራሲዊ አንድነት) was a
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...
in
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the Er ...
. In the
2010 elections
The following elections occurred in the year 2010.
{{TOC right
* National electoral calendar 2010
* Local electoral calendar 2010
* 2010 United Nations Security Council election
Africa
* 2010 Burkinabé presidential election
* 2010 Burundian Sen ...
, the BGPDUF won 9 seats. In local elections held the same day, the BGPDUF won 98 of the 99 seats in the Benishangul-Gumuz parliament.
The BGPDUF emerged from a 1996 conference led by the former Deputy Prime Minister
Tamrat Layne
Tamrat Layne Admassu ( gez, ታምራት ላይኔ አድማሱ; born 1955) is an Ethiopian former politician and a converted born-again Christian. He had served as Prime Minister of Ethiopia during the Transitional Government of Ethiopia after ...
. Previous to the conference, relations between the dominant
(EPRDF) and its partner, the
Benishangul People's Liberation Movement (BPLM) had grown strained, and the BPLM was ineffective due to internal factionalism. The conference announced its members had agreed that "all the parties should evaluate and cleanse themselves of '
OLF sympathisers', 'supporters of Sudanese interventionists' and 'corrupt officials'". Whereupon, under the direction of EPRDF cadres, members of not only the BPLM but the other five ethnic-based parties in the
Benishangul-Gumuz Region
Benishangul-Gumuz ( am, ቤንሻንጉል ጉሙዝ, Benšangul Gumuz) is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in northwestern Ethiopia to the border of Sudan. It was previously known as Region 6. The region's capital is Assosa. Following the ...
, submitted to a grueling session of ''gimgema'' or
self-criticism
Self-criticism involves how an individual evaluates oneself. Self-criticism in psychology is typically studied and discussed as a negative personality trait in which a person has a disrupted self-identity. The opposite of self-criticism would be ...
; those who were found to have admitted their weaknesses satisfactorily were allowed to enroll in the new parties being formed. As Asnake Kefale Adegehe explains:
: First, the BPLM, which had had a pan-regional claim was reduced to the
Bertha and was renamed the
EBPDO. Second, the two distinct ethnic parties that claimed to represent; the
Mao and the
Komo were merged to establish the Mao-Komo People's Democratic Organisation (MKPDO). The
Gumuz and
Boro-Shinasha ethnic parties remained without much change. The four organisations were then brought together to form a new front modelled after the EPRDF and named the BGPDUF.
Previous election results
In the
2005 elections, the party won 8 seats, all from the
Benishangul-Gumuz Region
Benishangul-Gumuz ( am, ቤንሻንጉል ጉሙዝ, Benšangul Gumuz) is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in northwestern Ethiopia to the border of Sudan. It was previously known as Region 6. The region's capital is Assosa. Following the ...
. The Deputy Chairman of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Affairs Committee in the following session of the Ethiopian Parliament was a member of the BGDUF.
In the 2000 Regional assembly elections, the BGDUF won 71 of 80 seats in Benishangul-Gumuz parliament. In the August 2005 Regional assembly elections, the party won 85 out of 99 seats in the Benishangul-Gumuz. In the
2008 by-elections for the Regional legislature, the BGPDUF won 5 seats.
In December 2019, the party merged with the
Afar National Democratic Party (ANDP), the
Amhara Democratic Party
The Amhara Democratic Party (ADP) ( am, አማራ ዴሞክራሲያዊ ፓርቲ), originally known as Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), was a political party in Ethiopia. The party was one of four members of the Ethiopian People's R ...
(ADP), the
Ethiopian Somali People's Democratic Party
The Somali Democratic Party (SDP; so, Xisbiga Dimuqraadiga Soomaalida), formerly the Ethiopian Somali People's Democratic Party, was a political party in Ethiopia, created by the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) ...
(ESPDP), the
Gambela People's Democratic Movement (GPDM), the
Hareri National League (HNL), the
Oromo Democratic Party (ODP) and the
Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM) to form the
Prosperity Party
The Prosperity Party ( am, ብልጽግና ፓርቲ, Bilits’igina Paritī; om, Paartii Badhaadhiinaa) is a political party in Ethiopia that was established on 1 December 2019 as a successor to the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic F ...
.
Notes
{{Ethiopia political parties
1996 establishments in Ethiopia
2019 disestablishments in Ethiopia
Defunct political parties in Ethiopia
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front
Political parties disestablished in 2019
Political parties established in 1996