People’s Salvation Front restructures ahead of federal election12 August 5426
As next year’s federal election approaches, the People’s Salvation Front (PSF) has completed a series of reforms to its internal structure and leadership. The changes are a response to a changing political environment in Cobura. Over fifteen years since the peace agreement that brought an end to the civil war, new political forces have emerged. At the time that it was originally formed, the PSF was primarily competing with other ethnic-based political parties. For the past four years, the party has governed in coalition with two multi-ethnic political movements: the National Prosperity Council, and Coburan Pride.
The objective of the reforms is to create a more unified political coalition that has a broader national appeal. The two largest parties in the coalition are the Zard-dominated Social Progress Party and the Mallan-dominated National Defence League. Both parties emerged from paramilitary groups and their support is concentrated among particular ethnic communities. As a result, they have relied on forming alliances with smaller parties to win support outside the Free Hosian Republic in the past.
Under the new structure, the Social Progress Party has absorbed two smaller parties: Free and United, and the Majatran National Democratic Party. As part of the reforms, the party leadership has been deliberately diversified. Irkawan and Majatran politicians have been promoted to several high-profile roles. At the same time, the party has sought to moderate its position on religious issues to appeal to non-Hosian voters.
Although the changes have attracted the support of most senior figures, there has been a backlash among Zardic nationalist and hardline Hosian sections of the coalition. Two junior members of the regional government of the Free Hosian Republic resigned in protest when the changes were confirmed at a recent meeting of the party executive. Long-serving president Assefa Meseret Mengistu voiced his support for the changes, saying it was “important that our party adapts to the changing conditions in our country”.
The New Informer is a broadsheet Zardic-language newspaper covering current affairs from a liberal perspective