EPRDF’s ‘menu of institutional manipulations’ and the 2015 regional elections

The paper begins with a discussion of what electoral authoritarians are, why they hold elections and the ‘menu of institutional manipulations’ they employ to retain their incumbency. It then deals with the political and institutional context within which the 2015 regional election was held. It introduces the political structures of the nine regions followed by a brief discussion of the political parties and the electoral system in use in the country. After outlining the results of the 2015 regional election, the paper turns to EPRDF’s ‘menus of institutional manipulations’ that help it sustain its dominance. Finally, it discusses the party’s notion of vanguardism that drives its electoral authoritarianism.Ethiopia is generally considered to have ‘a dominant party authoritarian’ system in which the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), along with its affiliates, enjoy electoral dominance. This contribution argues that EPRDF’s electoral dominance in the 2015 regional elections, indeed in all the elections held in the past two decades, is partly the result of the party’s use of what Schedler refers to ‘menu of institutional manipulations’ including electoral rules, government agencies, local authorities and even civil society organizations, to maintain its dominance. The semi-consociational system that guides the relationships of the constituent parties of EPRDF also provides the latter an electoral edge over the opposition parties which are often fragmented. The paper further argues that EPRDF’s vanguardist self-view, which is an offshoot of its ‘revolutionary democracy’ ideology, underpins its drive to be a dominant party and to use all of the institutional manipulations under its disposal