Peasants and Political Contestation in Oromia Region under EPRDF, 1991-2018

Abstract

The Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) regime (1991-2018) built a peasant-centered strategy to sustain a dominant-party system. Most post-1991 studies of state-society relations focus on ethnic federalism and ethno-nationalism, overlooking peasant political agency. Drawing on 28 interviews and 11 FGDs in rural Dawo Woreda and peri-urban Sululta, this study examines peasants’ role in the 2005 national election and the 2014–2018 Oromo protests using a critical political economy framework and social movement theory. Peasants, mobilized by educated youth, opposition parties and the diaspora, used both episodes to resist EPRDF rule that denied them meaningful local governance and land-tenure security. The analysis reveals that the transition from the electoral challenge in 2005 to the protests from 2014–2018 was propelled by a mcontestation vacuum created by the suppression of formal political space following the landslide elections of 2010 and 2015. For a party that claimed to be the sole representative of the peasants, the Oromo protests were triggered by the displacement of Oromo peasants, ultimately leading to its downfall. Current land policies retain EPRDF-era continuities and risk renewed instability unless local governance and tenure security are democratized.