In a political landscape fraught with division and unmet expectations for Amhara representation, the candidacy of Gashaw Mersha—a public communications official of the National Movement of Amhara (NaMA)—has come under intense scrutiny. Mersha is slated to contest the Estie 1 constituency in the upcoming federal election, a seat currently held by the Prosperity Party’s Dr. Destaw Mekuanint, who secured a robust victory in the previous cycle with 18,459 votes. Despite NaMA’s professed commitment to representing Amhara interests, the mounting evidence, underscored by pre-election polls forecasting another sweeping victory for the Prosperity Party, casts a long shadow over its efficacy. To make matters even more contentious, Gashaw Mersha is not even emerging as the principal alternative in voter support; instead, the distant second-highest vote-getter is Ashenafi Bishaw of the ENAT Party, whose rising prominence and influential guidance toward a leftist regime starkly contrast with NaMA’s underwhelming electoral performance. This widening gap in popular backing not only highlights the disconnect between NaMA’s ambitions and the electorate’s reality but also deepens the question of whether the party has truly managed to secure a mandate for Amhara’s future.
The party is increasingly being viewed as nothing more than a puppet organization, a tool repurposed by the regime to disseminate its propaganda. A recent press release from the party, which decried Eritrea’s sovereignty as both “questionable” and “unacceptable,” starkly illustrates this shift in messaging. In parallel, the party’s internal processes have come under fire: key leadership votes—most notably the re-election of Belete Molla as Chairperson—were marred by the deliberate absence of five federal MPs, including Dr. Dessalegn Chanie, as well as 13 Members of the Regional Council. While such exclusion sidesteps voices that once represented genuine Amhara nationalist interests—exemplified by figures like Hon. Christian Tadele and Yohannes Boyalew, who are now facing terrorism charges—other senior officials are visibly aligning themselves with the regime’s ideology and interests not that they were real Amhara nationalists in the first place. This realignment casts serious doubts over whether these leaders ever genuinely embodied Amhara nationalism or if their loyalties were always intended to serve higher political interests rather than the people they once vowed to represent.
Chairperson Belete Molla has swiftly emerged as the regime’s propaganda machine, distancing the party from its original nationalist promise. Once heralded for its bright future under Dr. Dessalegn Chanie in 2018, the party began its steep decline when leadership shifted hands to Belete Molla in 2020. Now serving as Minister of Innovation and Technology in the Prime Minister’s cabinet—and soon tasked with justifying millions of unidentified birr in parliamentary spending—Molla’s actions reveal his true allegiance. His constant taunting of Ethiopia’s claim over the Assab port is emblematic of a broader ideological pivot: the National Movement of Amhara is increasingly used as a tool to amplify the regime’s messaging rather than genuinely representing Amhara interests. Moreover, like other regime cadres, Molla neither stands as an elected member of parliament nor is he contesting the next election, further underlining his disconnect from the grassroots he once vowed to defend.
Just today, over thirty Amhara association organizations banded together to issue a sweeping joint statement denouncing the state of the National Movement of Amhara—a declaration that lays bare the deep disillusionment many Amhara feel. This collective denunciation highlights a stark transformation: a once-promising nationalist movement has been hijacked and reduced to a puppet organization serving the regime’s propaganda. Critics decry how the Prosperity Party now dominates the political field with calculated maneuvers that effectively crush any genuine opposition. In this political battleground, potential rivals are being systematically overwhelmed by party operatives who have, in effect, sold out the nation’s interests for personal gain, mimicking the business practice of buying out opposition rather than engaging in a fair contest for power. This disturbing trend not only underscores the erosion of Amhara nationalist ideals but also reflects a broader strategy by the regime to flood the political space with loyalists, thereby silencing dissent and subverting the dreams of a people yearning for authentic representation.
Exploring this further, one might ask: What are the long-term repercussions when political platforms become synonymous with opportunistic patronage rather than genuine national progress? How might the disenfranchised voices within the Amhara community reclaim their narrative amid such strategic dominance by the Prosperity Party? These questions hint at a turbulent political future where the struggle for genuine representation continues, leaving critical gaps that could otherwise invigorate the democratic process.
