Constitutional Regulation of Political Parties in Ethiopia: A Comparative Appraisal
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Date
2021-10
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Addis Ababa Unversity
Abstract
Being a logical place where an examination of the rights and duties of political parties begins,
the national constitution should properly recognizes political parties as manifestation of political
participation and political pluralism. Constitutional regulation of political parties plays
important roles in ensuring a level political playing field. The objective of this research is thus to
examine the constitutional status of political parties in Ethiopia. To this end, an extensive
analysis of the relevant literature, and the constitutions of Germany, Nigeria and Kenya have
been made. The examination of the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
reveals that the Constitution does not contain sufficient rules on political parties. This failure
arguably gives the ruling party an opportunity to manipulate the political process while keeping
opposition parties out of meaningful political participation. It moreover makes an attempt to
control the behavior of opposition parties more difficult. The research reviews the consequences
of non constitutionalization of political parties in Ethiopia. This is necessary in order to examine
the possible problems arising out of the non-constitutionalization of parties. The central
argument of the research is that most of the problems associated with political parties are
primarily attributed to the non-constitutionlization of the regulation of political parties.
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Keywords
Political Parties