The Sheko and Mezenger People's Democratic Unity Organization (Amharic: የሸኮና መዠንገር ህዝቦች ዴሞክራሲያዊ ግንባር, SMPDUO) is a political party in Ethiopia.
[1] The SMPDUO was founded in 2000 at the encouragement of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), who had hoped to contain within the legal political framework local desire to combine three woredas -- Godere in the Gambela Region, and the Sheko and Yeki woredas from the SNNPR—into a new ethnic zone.
However, this organization quickly gained a reputation for incendiary racialized rhetoric that dissuaded either the EPRDF or the opposition Southern Ethiopia People's Democratic Coalition from working with it.
After months of frustration, individuals associated with the SMPDUO marched on Tepi, leading to ethnic violence there.
[3] In the 2008 by-elections, the SMPDUO won 7 seats in one kebele in Yeki, gaining control of that local governmental unit.