EthioBlog

Dire Dawa faces uncertain future

By Eskinder Michael

The Capital
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
The current Dire Dawa Temporary Administration thought that its reign would come to an end this year as regional council elections would be held in April of 2007, but that hope was shattered as the House of People’s Representatives in its 13th regular session decided that the administration would cease being at an unspecified date of the next regional council elections.

In last year’s session, the house had passed a resolution that stated that Dire Dawa would be able to elect its own administration in April of 2007, and that decision was followed by another to revise it by discussing to set another date for the regional elections.
According to Ato Shifferaw Jarso, the incumbent’s representative in the parliament, Girma Woldegiorgis, President of Ethiopia had presented a suggestion to the parliament saying that the administration’s existence should end when elections for the regional council take place in June 30, 2007, extending the previous date by three months.
The decision however was changed after political party leaders and members came together and agreed to change the date ending the Dire Dawa Administration when the next elections for the regional council take place. The date however is unknown.
The Dire Dawa Administration has been the center of dispute between the Somali and Oromiya region as both regions believe that the city under federal protection belonged to them only. As such, no elections for the regional council took place on May 15 with the decision left to the parliament.
The decision was met by severe opposition from Ato Ayele, a member of the UEDF party who said, “This suggestion should not be passed by the parliament as it is against the constitution. The people of Dire Dawa have a right to be administered by an administration they elect and we should let them practice that right,”
The decision was however supported by the EDUP-Medhin as Dereje, a member of the party and the house said that the decision should be upheld. “The time is not right for the people of Dire Dawa to go to election now. The recent flooding have displaced many people and parties like ours need time to restructure. Political parties are also discussing the fate of the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) at the moment, so the date for the elections should be postponed to a future date,” he added.
The suggestion was passed with 354 for, 5 against and 15 abstaining.
Dire Dawa, lying in eastern Ethiopia (which in Somali means ‘place of remedy’) is one of two chartered cities in Ethiopia (the other being Addis Ababa). Dire Dawa is the second largest city in Ethiopia and is home to several markets and the Aba Tenna D. Yilma International airport. Dire Dawa lies on the Dechatu River, at the foot of a ring of cliffs that has been described as "somewhat like a cluster of tea-leaves in the bottom of a slop-basin.”
Dire Dawa was founded in 1902 after the Addis Ababa - Djibouti Railway reached the area. The railroad could not reach the city of Harar at its higher elevation, so Dire Dawa was built nearby.

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