The Central Council of the Eritrean People's Democratic Party (EPDP) on Sunday 10 September, 2017, adopted a Party Renewal document and formed a new Commission for Party Renewal  which is expected to report to  the Council every two months on the implementation of the document and additional ideas and tasks that can surface in repeated consultations with all concerned inside and outside the Party. The Commission is mandated to function till the next EPDP Congress in two years.

The party renewal project was decided during the 7th regular meeting of the EPDP Central Council that ended on 18 September 2016. It is to be recalled that a research body formed by the Executive Committee presented its paper at the Party Conference of March 2017 in Frankfurt, and the document now adopted by the EPDP leadership is a summary of those findings so far discussed.

The chain of sessions, being held electronically every weekend, are attended by the EPDP Central Council members who reside in the following 12 countries, listed in alphabetical order: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ethiopia, Germany, Holland, the Sudan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

The current 8th Regular Meeting of the Council held its first and second session on 26 and 27 August 2017 during  which it reviewed and adopted annual reports of the nine  executive offices  and other organs of the party. After skipping a weekend for the Eid al-Adha Holiday, the third session convened on 9 September deliberated on reports received from various organs in North America dealing with a destructive hiccup caused by a faction in the zonal leadership and its accomplices. In this regard, the Council reviewed a draft paper presented by the executive body and decided as follows:

1. The unruly acts and wild pronouncements of the ex-zone committee in North America have nothing to do with the EPDP and its organs;
2. Highly commends EPDP North America members who are  abiding  by decisions of the party leadership elected at the second EPD Congress of 2015, and who are closely cooperating with the newly formed Preparatory Committee for an emergency zonal congress for EPDP North America;
3.  Likewise, the EPDP Council called upon all members in North America to closely cooperate with the Preparatory Committee and share their views by attending  the emergency congress now under preparation.

As noted earlier, the 4th session of the current meeting on Sunday, 10 September, dealt mainly with party renewal issues although it also managed to vote on elected Zerabruk Gebre-Tatewos of EPDP Holland to be the new Auditor General of the party finances. The next session is scheduled for Sunday, 17 September 2017.