While these region weren't given "extensive sub-national control over technical policies, laws, regulations, and tax" their creation lent credibility to the different independence and ethnic movements around the country.[1] For Ethiopian Nationalists, this credibility has emboldened different groups, giving them more cohesion, whilst corroding national unity and notions of Ethiopianism. The increased autonomy of these groups contrasted with the increased repression by Tigray elites created a situation in which the ruling class was both empowering groups through greater ethnic cohesion, but transparently stifling their political will. As evidenced by the 2005 elections the TPLF use of violent repression to subdue detractors of the ruling coalition only had the effect of radicalizing ethnic parties and increasing ethnic divisions.