Lidetu came from a modest background, working in NGOs but later to owning a profitable auto import business. Mr. Lidetu rose to political prominence by forming the Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP) in 1992 with an initial membership of 120 men and women. He was the secretary General of the EDP until he led the forming of a new coalition called UEDP, which later join Medhin and became UEDP-Medhin. Over the years, he has been a thorn on the side of PM Meles Zenawi and the ruling EPRDF party by matching Meles’ rhetoric word-to-word. He organized various demonstrations protesting some of the policies of the government, particularly alongside students. One of his achievements was his organizational role in founding the CUD (Kinijt) and bringing it to national political dominance. He was the vice chairman of this coalition party until internal issues caused the coalition to break up. The coalition Kinijit party won 109 of the 546 seats in the government, however when Mr. Ayalew’s UEDP-Medhin party split from Kinijit, it took some of their seats as well. UEDP-Medhin had won the majority of seats in the Addis Ababa council at the 2005 elections.
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