ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Ethiopia's ruling coalition will hold a two-day
governing council meeting from Friday to choose a leader to succeed former
prime minister Meles Zenawi, who died last month, it said.
"The council assigns the chairperson of the organisation that replaces our
great leader, who departed from us suddenly," said an online statement
Thursday by the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).
During his 21 years in power, Meles was both EPRDF chairman and prime
minister.
Government spokesman Bereket Simon told AFP that "automatically the
chairperson will be the prime minister."
However while this was the case under Meles, there is nothing to say that it
will remain the same following his death, said a western diplomatic source
in Addis Ababa.
After Meles's death, deputy prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn was quickly
named interim prime minister and presented by the government as the natural
successor to the long-time ruler, who had groomed Hailemariam as his heir.
Parliament, however, has not yet reconvened to confirm Hailemariam as the
country's new leader.
An extraordinary session of parliament set for the end of August was
cancelled and government spokesman Bereket told AFP that there was "no
hurry" to reconvene the legislative body.
"There is no reason it will do it (reopen) before the last Monday of
September," Bereket said.
Hailemariam, 47, is considered an outsider compared to other core members of
the ruling coalition, despite having held several high-ranking positions,
including the post of foreign minister, according to analysts.
He did not participate in the guerilla war that ousted dictator Mengistu
Haile Mariam from power in 1991 and does not come from the same northern
Tigray region as Meles.
Hailemariam also belongs to Ethiopia's minority protestant faith rather than
the country's dominant Christian Orthodox church.
