The Sheko and Mezenger People's Democratic Unity Organization is a political party

Political party

A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 in Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

. At the last legislative elections

Ethiopian general elections, 2005

Ethiopia held general elections on May 15, 2005, for seats in both its national and in four regional government councils. Under pressure from the international community, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi promised that this election would be proof that more democracy would come in this multi-ethnic...

, 15 May 2005, the party elected Kassahun Jarka Ziyatu to represent a district in the Bench Maji Zone

Bench Maji Zone

Bench Maji is one of the 13 Zones of the Ethiopian Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region . Bench Maji is bordered on the south by the Ilemi Triangle, on the west by Sudan, on the northwest by the Gambela Region, on the north by Keficho Shekicho and on the east by Debub Omo...

 of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR).

History

The SMPDUO was founded in 2000 at the encouragement of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front

Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front

The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front is the ruling political coalition in Ethiopia. It is an alliance of four other groups: the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization , the Amhara National Democratic Movement , the South Ethiopian Peoples' Democratic Front The Ethiopian People's...

 (EPRDF), who had hoped to contain within the legal political framework local desire to combine three woreda

Woreda

Woreda is an administrative division of Ethiopia , equivalent to a district . Woredas are composed of a number of Kebele, or neighborhood associations, which are the smallest unit of local government in Ethiopia...

s -- Godere in the Gambela Region

Gambela Region

Gambela is one of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia. Previously known as "Region 12", its capital is Gambela. Lying between the Baro and Akobo Rivers, the western part of Gambela includes the Baro salient....

, and the Sheko

Sheko (woreda)

Sheko is one of the 77 woredas in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. It is named for the Sheko people, whose homeland lies in the eastern part of the woreda; a different ethnic group, the Me'en, dominate the southeastern part...

 and Yeki

Yeki

Yeki is one of the 77 woredas in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Keficho Shekicho Zone, Yeki is bordered on the south by the Bench Maji Zone, on the west by the Gambela Region, on the north by Masha Anderacha, on the northeast by Gesha, and on the...

 woredas from the SNNPR -- into a new ethnic zone. However, this organization quickly gained a reputation for incendiary racialized rhetoric that dissuaded either the EPRDF or the opposition Southern Ethiopia People's Democratic Coalition from working with it. In the elections held at the end of 2001, the SMPDUO won control of a majority of kebele

Kebele

A kebele is the smallest administrative unit of Ethiopia similar to ward, a neighbourhood or a localized and delimited group of people...

s in Sheko and claimed control of Yeki woreda. One of the party's first acts when it gained power was to disarm kebele militias in the areas where the National Election Board of Ethiopia

National Election Board of Ethiopia

The National Election Board of Ethiopia is an autonomous government agency which supervises the national elections of Ethiopia. The NEBE was established by Proclamation number 64/1992, and answers to the House of Peoples' Representatives....

 claimed the SMPDUO had not won the elections, but met with resistance. After months of frustration, individuals associated with the SMPDUO marched on Tepi, leading to ethnic violence there.

In the August 2005 Regional assembly elections, the SMPDUO won only one of the 348 seats in the SNNPR legislature. In the 2008 by-elections

Ethiopian by-elections, 2008

Ethiopia held nation-wide elections for local offices in the kebele and woreda assemblies on 13 and 20 April 2008. By-elections were also held for seats in the Addis Ababa City Council, and in the national and regional parliaments that were vacant due to the Coalition for Unity and Democracy’s ...

, the SMPDUO won 7 seats in one kebele in Yeki, gaining control of that local governmental unit.