Under the current constitution, Ethiopia conducts local, regional, and federal elections. At the federal level, Ethiopia elects a legislature. The Federal Parliamentary Assembly has two chambers: the House of People's Representatives (ተወካዮች ምክር ቤት Yehizbtewekayoch Mekir Bet) with not more than 550 members as per the constitution but actually nearly 547 members, elected for five-year terms in single-seat constituencies; and the Council of the Federation (Yefedereshn Mekir Bet) with 117 members, one each from the 22 minority nationalities, and one from each professional sector of its remaining nationalities, designated by the regional councils, which may elect them themselves or through popular elections. Ethiopia is a dominant-party state in that a coalition, the Prosperity Party, is the strongest party in the country. Reforms to political party legislation have opened up for opposition parties to operate in the country and many have been registered under the new law, but the Prosperity Party remains the dominant party in the political landscape. History Although the history of Ethiopia is dotted with non-democratic systems of government such as the Abyssinian, Jimma, Harar, Wolayta Kingdoms, many of these states also had or reigned over egalitarian political systems that allowed popular participation similar to the ones in ancient Greece or Western Africa. The most commonly cited example of the egalitarian governance structures is the Gada System of the Oromo People that had an peer group based system with developed legislative bodies. In addition to the Gada, and similar systems among the Mursi, Gurage, Sidamo, Kambata, Somali People; the “Bayto” and “Risti” systems among the Tigray and the elected variants of the “Abat” and “Rist” systems o f the Amhara have been considered to be pre-modern democratic systems that predate the current constitutional order. The first modern elections in Ethiopia took place during the imperial regime under Haile Selassie I. These were followed by a referendum by the Military ("Derg") regime to approve the constitution of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. The first legally mandated multi-party (reginal) contests took place in 1992 and were followed by the election of the members of the Constituent Assembly (which drafted the 1995 Constitution). These early democratic exercises and the referendum to approve the current constitution were held under the Transitional Period Charter of Ethiopia. General elections have since been held in 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015. 1995 general elections The 1995 elections were preceded by a post-socialist liberalization that