Ethiopia National Dialogue: Day 4 Update — 7,000 on Site, Late-Joining Parties Welcomed, Full Sessions Start Monday.
With 7,000 participants now at the Addis International Convention Center, the Commission prepares to start thematic sessions on July 21 while keeping its doors open to holdout parties.
The Ethiopian National Dialogue Commission opened its main conference on July 15 at the Addis International Convention Center. Chief Commissioner Professor Mesfin Araya gave a briefing on July 18, four days into the conference. The 4,000 core participants have completed orientation and pre-consultation training. When assistants, experts, and support staff are counted, the total on-site is over 7,000. The conference is scheduled to run 30 days or more.
Political parties that had previously declined to work with the Commission joined in the final days before the conference opened and were granted access. The Commissioner repeated an open invitation in the July 18 briefing to the remaining holdout parties and armed groThe Commissioner confirmed that decisions will not be taken by simple majority vote. A specific methodology has been established to define what percentage of agreement constitutes consensus, and separate procedures are in place to ensure smaller regional states can raise concerns alongside larger regions on equal procedural footing.ups. This weekend, the Commission and its experts are reviewing seating and grouping arrangements — including correcting instances where religious representatives were placed away from other religious peers. Full thematic sessions begin Monday, July 21.
The Commissioner asked media present to broadcast proceedings in multiple local languages beyond Amharic so communities in peripheral areas can follow the process directly.