Heads will role in the revamping of party’s PR: Meles warns Ethiopian Reporter

21 September, 2008

“Traditionally, the party strongly believed that actions spoke louder than words. But in a country where action is overshadowed by lip service, it is difficult to solely depend on such tradition,” Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said speaking of the need to reform his party’s public relation.

Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has long suffered from weak public relations. But that, Meles warns, is about to change, and “when procedure and structure are reformed,” some heads will roll.

Meles made the above statement during the party’s seventh regular congress in Hawassa.

In response to questions regarding the party’s weak public relations, he said “the party accepts this as deep rooted” and intends to implement a radical institutional, professional and structural reform.

The prime minister, who was re-elected as chairman of the party, also told the congress that a significant amount of work has already been done over the past year, to enable a change in the operation and structure of EPRDF’s public relation work.

His public relations advisor, with the rank of minister, Bereket Simon, on his part told the congress that most of the members that the party recruited from institutions of higher education only became members hoping to secure employment. He said these recruits did not fulfill their membership obligations.

So far EPRDF’s work had its emphasis on the rural agrarian population, according to Meles, in order to strengthen that, and also focus in urban areas, the party will implement a reform.

EPRDF says that it has about 4 to 5 million members through out the country, with a larger base in rural areas.