According to an agenda for the Ethiopia’s lower house’s 19 April parliamentary session, lawmakers in the house are due tomorrow to select a speaker to replace Abadula Gemeda, who made a high-profile resignation on October 2017 but later returned to his previous duty.Speculation is rife that Muferiyat Kamil, deputy head of the EPRDF Secretariate and member of the Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (SEPDM), is running as possible candidate. In 2008, Muferiat Kamil became Minister of Women’s Affairs at the age of 32, at the time, the youngest appointee of the late Meles Zenawi.

Newly elected Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed will also announce a Cabinet reshuffle in tomorrow’s session, it was said.Abiy will name a new Communications Minister and government spokesman, as Negeri Lencho has just been appointed as Oromia region’s Communication head, in what was widely believed as a demotion. Since the instalment of state of emergency, Negeri has already been relegated to an irrelevant figure, his departure expected even before Abiy’s nomination as a Prime Minister. Negeri Lencho, the former head of the journalism and communications college at Addis Ababa University replaced TPLF’s Getachew Reda on November 2016. Ahmed Shidie, minister of Transport, is to replace him, according to the Fortune. Also rumoured to be in the running is Shiferaw Shigute as minister of Agriculture and livestock.Keria Ibrahim, who has been elected as new member of the executive committee of the TPLF, is expected to replace the Speaker of the House of Federation, Yalew Abate of ANDM.
The House would also will hold a hearing to reform a bill which define the powers and duties of the executive organs of the government.
Update: Abadulla has been appointed as Prime Minister’s Abiy’s security advisor, Ahmed Abitew as Director of Policy Research and Development Center, Moges Balcha, Coordinator for Research and Publications for the Democratic System Building Center, Fetlework Gebreegziabher as Coordinator for the centre of the Democratic System Building holding ministerial portfolio.