ADDIS ABABA (Halbeeg News) – Ethiopian lawmakers are expected to appoint a new president who succeeds the outgoing president, Mulatu Teshome.
In the country’s House of People’s Representatives and House of Federations will hold their second special meetings for the year to hear and formally accept the resignation of Mr. Teshome.
No reason has been given for his expected resignation but analysts say it was the outcome of continued negotiations between the four parties in the ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).
Mr. Teshome has been serving as president since 2013 after he took over from his predecessor, President Girma Woldeghioris who is in retirement now.
The first president under the current regime was the late Meles Zenawi who later relegated the position of the presidency (“constitutionally”) entirely into a ceremonial one as a prime ministerial system of government was introduced soon after the “transitional period.”
It is not yet clear who will succeed Mr. Teshome but according to Borkena, an online media based in Ethiopia, there are rumors saying that Ambachew Mekonnen (Ph.D.) (from what is now Amhara Democratic Party- ADP) would be appointed as the next president after he was left out from Abiy Ahmed’s new cabinet appointment (and there was expectation that he would hold Foreign Affairs Ministry position).
Sources from the party told the portal that Ambachew asked for it and that his party opposed his candidacy for the position on grounds that he could be more productive in other position that the party deems relevant in consideration of equitable share of government power between member parties within the ruling coalition. A week later, news came out on social media again that Ambachew changed his mind.
In accordance with Ethiopian constitution, the president has a maximum of two terms of six years each but Mr. Mulatu had served his first term.
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