Thursday, December 19, 2013

Ayalew Gobeze, president of the Amhara Regional State, has resigned

December 19/2013

Amhara Regional State Changes Top Leader

Image

Ayalew Gobeze, president of the Amhara Regional State, has resigned from his office today, and replaced by his deputy, Gedu Andargachew, sources disclosed to Fortune.

The congress of the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), the ruling party in the region, is currently undergoing in Bahir Dar, the seat of the regional state. It has not been clear what transpired this change. But senior leaders in the party say it is part of the succession plan the party has been carrying out in recent years.

Ayalew has been serving the regional state as president since 2008, where he began his debut as a senior official of the regional cabinet in 2005, under Addisu Legesse. He is also a member of the House of Federation, since 2005. However, his ascendance in the ruling party began in 2006, when he was first elected as an executive committee member of the ANDM, during the sixth congress of the party.

A former teacher when the insurgents advancing downward to the centre in the early 1990s, Ayalew represents a generation of EPRDFites that have joined the party after the fall of the military government, in May 1991. He is the peer of Demeke Mekonnen, now chairman of the ANDM and deputy prime minister, and Gegu. The latter began his ascendancy in 2005, after he was appointed to be member the Budget Subsidy & Revenues Affairs Standing Committee of the House of Federation. Chaired by Ayalew, the 10-member committee had comprised politicians such as Shiferaw Shenkute, now minister of Education, Redwan Hussien, now director general of Government Communications Affairs Office, Abadula Gemeda, speaker of Parliament, and Abay Woldu, president of the Tigray Regional State. He became an executive committee member of the ANDM in the same year as that of Ayalew, although both have been members of the party’s central committee since 1999.

Ayalew’s next move has yet to be disclosed, although it is possible that he will be appointed as an ambassador to one of Ethiopia’s overseas missions, sources close to the congress disclosed to Fortune.

No comments: