Addis Ababa - Ethiopia's quiet premier, Hailemariam Desalegn, whose powerful party is expected to return to office in elections Sunday, is a onetime technocrat with a modern bent who was little known a few years ago.
The 49-year-old Hailemariam has overseen a smooth transition in the vast Horn of Africa nation, the continent's oldest independent state, since he took over in 2012 on the death of former Marxist rebel Meles Zenawi.
The death of Meles turned Hailemariam from a relatively little-known politician and technocrat to an influential leader.
He also silenced critics who had feared instability at the handover from Meles, who had ruled after toppling dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991.
Less charismatic than his mentor, the former water engineer represents a new generation of leaders set apart from the old guard from the northern Tigray region who were the core of the guerrilla war against Mengistu.
"Some signs suggest his control over the security forces is low," one analyst of the Ethiopian government said. "He understood that he is a man of consensus between different groups."
Unlike many in the ruling elite, he was not part of the rebel movement which toppled Mengistu. Instead, Hailemariam, who studied civil engineering in Addis Ababa, was completing his master's degree at Finland's Tampere University when the dictator fell.
He became the chairman of the ruling Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) shortly after Meles' death, pledging at the time to continue his "legacy without any changes".
Ethiopia's economic growth -- more than 10 percent each year for the last five years according to the World Bank -- has continued.
But there are differences: since coming to power, Hailemariam has appointed three deputy prime ministers and established a more collegiate system of government, breaking with the autocratic rule of his predecessor.
AFP
