 Okay, my name is Gaebra Hanu, I'm from Masosa University, working research on political representation in regional parliaments of Ethiopia, focusing on the case of Benchangul Goom's regional parliaments. And this project was funded by Global Research Challenge Research Fund and Global Research Network on Parliaments and people. And when I do this research, it's not only me, I have my co-researcher, Yob Sambata, he's also from Masosa University. Let me start my presentation. So as I said, I'm going to speak about political representation in regional parliaments of Benchangul Goom's. As we know democracy and representation are closely intertwined concepts. It's very difficult to think about the one in the absence of the other, that means. And again, ethnic representation is a serious issue in countries with ethnic diversity. Particularly, where there is feeling of marginalization or where there is quest for federal representation, it can cause or sometimes exacerbate conflicts. That means the nature of representation markers in a given country. Particularly in our research, we employed a mixed approach. We have quantitative data as well as quality data we gather through interviews and focus group discussions. And before directly talking about the case of Benchangul Goom's regional state, it's very good to understand the national context, the national context within which the case of Benchangul Goom's regional state is embedded. When we see the national context, Ethiopia as a country first. Ethiopia is an ancient country with a history of over 3000 years. Of course, the second most populous country in Africa right now. And Ethiopia is the mosaic of diverse ethnic and religious groups. We do have more than 80 ethnic groups living together. That means the peace and stability of this country depends on how this diversity is handled or how these groups are included or excluded in the state apparatus in general, and in parliaments in particular. As a result, Ethiopian regimes, particularly Ethiopian regimes of 20th century, 20th century attempted to under this diversity in different ways. For the sake of this presentation, I can roughly divide into two and see how they handled this diversity in this country. So 1991 is a landmark. So pre-1991 have their own pattern and post-1991 has its own difference from that. So pre-1991 Ethiopian regimes have a tendency of assimilation, have a tendency of assimilation and centralization. Of course, their goal was creating a strong Ethiopian state in this part of Africa. But the issue is how we can build a strong Ethiopian state with unity and solidarity as a user assimilation, creating Ethiopia with one language, one religion, and like that. And this has brought exclusion and marginalization to the very diverse religious and ethnic groups in this country. And many scholars argued that this was a failed nation building strategy. As a result, in 1991, there was a regime change, the double regime was overthrown, and this Ethiopian people's revolutionary democratic front assumed political power in Addis Ababa and established Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia with its own constitution, which was drafted in 1990s. And in order to handle this diversity, the post-1991 Ethiopian regime adopted ethnic federalism. And since then, ethnic federalism has become overarching state framework. And the income of the region believes that federalism will be a solution to problems of Ethiopia. And as a result, regional states were established based on ethnicity. This region to this ethnic group, that region to that ethnic group, there was region formation based on ethnic lines. And this has created sense of exclusion or marginalization for groups living outside the region in almost all regions. This is in almost all regions in Ethiopia. As a result, in Romania, we do have millions of non-Romans, and millions of non-Romans residing in Romania are facing this challenge. So many scholars argued ethnic federalism has only decentralized marginalization and exclusion. As a result, in Ethiopia currently there is quest for federal ethnic representation. And therefore proliferation of region-good questions, identity questions are at the forefront of local political dynamics in Ethiopia right now. So the case of Benchang-Ulgum region has to be understood in this wider national context. And Benchang-Ulgum regional state itself is multi-ethnic, multilingual, multi-religious region, multilingual located in western periphery of Ethiopia, bordering with Sudan and South Sudan. It was established by the 1995 Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopian Constitution. When we see ethnic composition of the region, of course, regions have their own constitution in Ethiopia under Ethiopian ethnic federalism. All regions have their own regional constitution. And the regional constitution has also recognized that there are indigenous people and there are also others. So the indigenous groups identified in Benchang-Ulgum are fine. The Bertha, the Gumus, Shinasha, Mao, and Komu people. Others, sometimes they call them indigenous, are money, are too many Ethiopian people living in the region. But this, the so-called others, or what sometimes they call them indigenous, are dominant in national politics, are dominant at a national level. We should understand that. The indigenous are, they don't have that much voice in national politics. They are simply indigenous in Benchang-Ulgum region. And when we see the population composition, around 57% of the population of the region is made up of the indigenous people, what we call indigenous. The remaining 43% of the population is an indigenous people according to the 2007 Housing and Sensors report. When we see ethnic representation in the parliaments in Benchang-Ulgum region instead, we do have parliaments at different levels. At three tiers, we can say. We do have elected representatives at Kabbalah level. We do have elected representatives at Woreda level. We do have also elected representatives at regional level. So there are three tiers. And in our research, we found that in lower tiers of government in Benchang-Ulgum region, there is better representation of ethnic groups. There is better representation. And as a result, there is no quest for fairer representation. People feel that they are well represented at Kabbalah level and at Woreda levels. But in upper tiers, there is feeling of marginalization. And this feeling of marginalization has caused quest for fairer representation, particularly among the non-indigenous ethnic groups. If we see the regional parliament, for instance, the incumbent regional parliament in Benchang-Ulgum, it's occupied by one political party and its affiliates, the ruling political party. This similar result of the national parliament dominated by one single political party and its affiliates. So politics organized along ethnic lines and parliament dominated by single political party is problematic. It will have some aspects of exclusion and marginalization. As a result, some groups are feeling that they are not well represented in the regional parliament as well as town parliament. Despite this feeling, this system was there for around 25, 26 years, due to two reasons. The first reason is weak or absence of competitive multi-party election. In Benchang-Ulgum as well as the whole Ethiopia, there is weak or there is no even competitive multi-party election. As I have said, if you go and see the parliament in Benchang-Ulgum, it's occupied by a single political party and its affiliates. So parliamentary seats are not well distributed among the groups in society. Even candidates approve on matters. Once their candidates are approved, they will become parliamentarians because there is no competitive election in the region. This cannot and of course should not continue due to increasing role of social media activism currently. And there is also again absurdity of new wealth ethnic nationalism. This increasing role of social media activism and absurdity of new wealth ethnic nationalism, they complement each other, they feed each other, they work together. And due to this, such system cannot continue or people will completely resist such things. And such things should of course change and parliament should look like at least the demography of the people, the demography of the region I mean. When we see what are the problems, what are the challenges to ensure political representation in BGRS, there are complicated issues of course. There are three issues complicating this issue, this problem. The first one is this indigenous non-indigenous conundrum has its own problem. And the other one is I already mentioned absurdity of new wealth ethnic nationalism complemented with social media activism has also complicated the problem. And demographic change is another problem, demographic change. The demography of the region is slightly changing. The indigenous groups are what I mean by demographic change. The indigenous groups entitled with some rule rights extending up to session according to the federal democratic republic of Ethiopian constitution are becoming minorities in their localities. Because the so called non-indigenous are dominant at national level and the population movement is there, their number is becoming lower and lower and lower. So they are becoming minorities, they cannot win. If we are saying let election determine the issue, then the so called indigenous ethnic groups cannot win election because politics is arranged along ethnic lines and their population number is very low compared to the other groups. This has complicated the issue of representation in the region. And the problem is here, among the indigenous ethnic groups there is increasing quest for federal representation. They are feeling that as marginalized as excluded from the regional political platform. But among the indigenous groups on the other hand, there is feeling of losing their central rights in their localities. The indigenous groups they want to preserve the status quo. And the others wants to change that there is contending interest there. In our research, we are, we are arguing that this contending questions should be balanced and addressed when by the concerned, by the concerned body. The government as well as the government as they called us should address this issue. How these issues can be solved. Ensuring representation is a must for peace and stability of the region as well as the country. How we can ensure this first adopting proportional representation electoral system might be helpful. Second, conducting competitive multi-party election is a must. Conducting competitive multi-party election is a must in this region as well as in the country. But the issue here is we want to underline is precautionary measures should be taken so that ensuring federal representation should not override central rights of the indigenous groups. Because indigenous groups, the rights have to be respected. They must have a voice in the parliament and other state apparatus so adopting proportional electoral system. Creating favorable condition for competitive multi-party election alone is not enough. Special attention should be paid to the indigenous groups, the indigenous groups. And the other issue might be increasing the number of regional parliamentary seats. Yes, the regional parliament has around 99 parliamentary seats. But if we see the ethnic lipids, the religious lipids, the age categories, if all this section of society have to be represented well, the regional parliamentary seats can be increased and that's possible to do. The regional parliament, the regional parliament offices are aware of this and I think they are working over it. Of course this needs constitutional amendment to conclude the current region or whoever rules the country, whoever rules Ethiopia must balance, must handle this diversity effectively. In the case of the region, the question of federal representation among the indigenous groups and self-ruled rights of indigenous groups in the region have to be balanced. Inability to balance these contending questions will negatively influence Ethiopia's attempt of deepening democracy because if peace cannot prevail, if stability is not served, then we cannot talk about democracy. So to ensure peace and stability, handling diversity in a very planned, strategic manner that suits all concerned parties is very important and the region should undertake measures in that manner. And I have done with my presentation and I thank you.