The newly formed Commission for Party Renewal of the Eritrean People's Democratic Party (EPDP) held its first meeting on 2 December 2017 at which it adopted its internal regulations and elected Mr. Fessehaye Hagos as chairman and Mr. Medhanie Habtezghi as secretary of the Commission. The meeting also made an initial review of the general concepts included in the party renewal document that was passed to it by the EPDP Central Council.

The Commission, which is expected to report periodically to  the Central Council on the formalities of the implementation of the Party Renewal document, will hold its second meeting within the next two weeks. It is currently composed of 12 senior EPDP members from nine countries (Australia, Ethiopia, Germany, the Sudan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States of America).

The over four-hour meeting of the Commission on Saturday started by making general review of the geopolitical situation in the Horn of Africa region, naturally focusing focus on Eritrea, Ethiopia and the Sudan. It also heard happy tidings related to the North America zone   which has successfully overcome uncalled for hiccups and is making fast moves towards holding its extraordinary congress as called by the Party leadership.

While discussing and adopting the internal rules, meeting participants reassured their continued resolve  to serve at any level of the Commission and the party in order to help revive our people's interest and commitment make more sacrifices in the still uphill struggle for democratic change in Eritrea. 

The Party Renewal document  is to be further enhanced for smooth implementation by the Commission. It paper was prepared following a decision of the Central Council in September 2016. Draft of the document was discussed at the Europe-Zone conference in March 2017 and reviewed and adopted for further action by the 8th Central Council on 10 September 2017.