Campaign billboard for the EPRDF next to TPLF 35th anniversary billboard. EPRDF billboard says “electing EPRDF means ensuring the continuation of development and the renaissance of the country” TPLF billboard says “we will repeat our past victories”. Photo from 2010 by Uduak Amimo via BBC World Service. CC BY 2.0 Over the last six months, an ongoing protest movement in Ethiopia has triggered a power struggle within the country's longtime governing coalition, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front’s (EPRDF), posing an unprecedented challenge to its 27-year rule. On December 30, it became apparent just how much the growing opposition has threatened the political status quo when EPRDF addressed the country in a lengthy televised statement aimed at appeasing the three-year-old movement, which has braved deadly crackdowns to demand, among other things, fairer government representation of Ethiopia's ethnic groups It came after the 36 members of the highest decision-making body of the EPRDF, the executive committee, convened in a heavily guarded secretive meeting that lasted a little over two weeks (from December 12 to 30, 2017). But if hopes were high the mounting pressure would result in serious political reform, they were dashed with the statement, which offered nothing of the sort. The EPRDF is a coalition of four ethnic-based parties: the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), the Oromo People's Democratic Organization (OPDO), the Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM) and the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF). All four purport to represent Ethiopia’s major ethnic groups, but are closely aligned in ideology, political association, and policy preferences. The TPLF is the core of the EPRDF coalition, holding absolute power over the last quarter of a century. For opposition activists, “Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front” is a misleading term because among the four parties it is the TPLF, not the other three parties, that determines whether to bestow power to other members of the coalition, or take it away. The criticism goes that TPLF uses the coalition to confirm its own ability to keep both the center of the country and the regions under control while the remaining three ethnic parties participate as a “patronage network,” trading the needs of their people for political influence. The most dominant member of the coalition, TPLF, is a mother party reminiscent of the Soviet Communist Party. TPLF created EPRDF, maintained it through a range of ideological machinations & used the vassals to bolster its legitimacy and squelch opposition from autonomous parties. — Awol Allo (@awol_allo) January 1, 2018 In terms of representation, Oromos make up 35 percent of the country’s 100 million people, Amharas account for about 30 percent of the population, and the Southern Ethiopian region accounts for 14 percent. While Tigrayans represent only 6 percent of the population, they are among the most high-ranking military officers who control the nation's security. The power struggle has become plain in the last several months. In October, the speaker of Ethiopian rubber stamp parliament resigned over of the claims of disrespect to Oromo people. And tensions between OPDO and TPLF – which have simmered for some time – were laid bare when OPDO and later ANDM members of the Ethiopian parliament refused to perform their jobs unless the executive branch of the government offered them an explanation about the ongoing violence against protesters. Oromo and Amhara MPs boycott parliament as winds of change (#OromoProtests + #AmharaResistance) and a bitter power struggle inside the governing EPRDF coalition reaches #Ethiopia’s (one-time?) rubberstamp legislative body—a new analysis with @AbbaKayo: https://t.co/J5D2cAmvcy pic.twitter.com/sA9TyeRH3t — Mohammed Ademo (@OPride) December 22, 2017 Some say when OPDO and ANDM members challenge the TPLF, they are driven by considerations of power, rather than ideology. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that some sections of OPDO and ANDM have also emerged as advocates for political reform within EPRDF that comes on the heels of unprecedented popular protests in their respective regional states: Oromia and Amhara. 2017 was the year of the Oromo People's Democratic Organisation (OPDO). The OPDO was able to shake the puppet label and actually prove to be quite vocal in #Ethiopia‘s political arena. pic.twitter.com/4648ug8bCi — Zecharias Zelalem (@ZekuZelalem) December 30, 2017 The political elites of the two parties have also started to forge an alliance, a significant development given that the elites from Oromo and the Amhara peoples have long been at opposite ends of the country’s political divide.