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TheEthiopian Democratic Union (Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ዴሞክራሲያዊ ህብረት) orEDU, also known asTeranafit (formerly a separate group based inShire before it merged with the EDU), was one of the political parties that formed in opposition to theDerg regime ofEthiopia. It merged with theEthiopian Democratic Party to form theEthiopian Democratic Unity Party.
Founded in the aftermath of the revolution and the military coup that toppled EmperorHaile Selassie in September 1974, the EDU professed a conservative agenda. Established under the tutelage of the hereditary Prince ofTigray,RasMengesha Seyoum, the EDU was made up of various elements that included land owners who were opposed to the nationalization of their land holdings, monarchists, high-ranking military officers displaced by the mutineers who had led the coup against the Emperor, and conservative and centrist opponents of theMarxist-Leninist Derg. From mid-1976 into 1977, the EDU broadcast radio programs into Ethiopia from the Sudan, and also launched a military campaign intoBegemder that almost capturedGondar. Although democratic ideals were voiced by the party, and vaguely promoted a constitutional monarchy, it never made its political program clear, a failing which eventually weakened the EDU when its various factions began to diverge politically. Ethnic rivalries between the Tigrean loyalists of Ras Mangasha and the non-Tigrean elements of the EDU also widened the split.
Other rebel movements politically opposed to the EDU, which included theTigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front in Tigray and theEthiopian People's Revolutionary Party in Begemder, fought against them and helped the Derg forces push the EDU out of the territories it held. In 1978, the leadership of the EDU split due to serious political differences that had developed between them and it withdrew from the armed struggle against the Derg regime. It remained active among Ethiopian exile communities, particularly in Europe and in the Sudan.
The group was responsible for apogrom againstEthiopian Jews in 1978.[1]
The EDU reorganized inAddis Ababa as a legal opposition party after the TPLF led theEthiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front to power. It was at this time the party assumed a pan-Ethiopianliberalrepublican ideology.[2] The party had a representative at the July 1991 London conference which led to the establishment of theTransitional Government of Ethiopia.[2][3] However some small factions continued to resist theEPRDF, particularly inBegemder province.[2]
In September 2003, the EDU merged with theEthiopian Democratic Party, becoming theUnited Ethiopian Democratic Party.[4] Seyoum Mengesha became the party's honorary chairman, but played little role in the party administration, living in exile, and the post was quietly abolished.
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