Wow, Parliament Getting Cranky
Some of it anyway. The GPC has a majority in Parliament due to a lot of voter intimidation and bribery during the last election. It seems some (I would assume minority) parliamentarians are demanding to fufill their role (instead of being a rubber stamp) and are threatening to dissolve the government or call for early elections. They are outnumbered, but apparently vocal. Then there was that guy who resigned in order to be honest among the people (who is a member of the GPC I just read), which was impressive as well:
SANA’A – The government made a request to Parliament last Monday for substantial additional provisions in the national budget, amounting to over 451 billion Yemeni rials. The sum requested would mean an increase in the budget of around 50%.Alawi Al-Salami, the minister of finance, says that the demand of the government for unbudgeted additional allocations is necessary to meet public needs. 60% of the new provision, Al-Salami says, is allocated for raises in employee salaries, as shown by the wages and salaries strategy approved by Parliament. The allocation will fund the consequences of the price rises with YR 5 billion.
Some members of Parliament have described the additional allocation as a “new kind of corruption”. Reacting to the government’s proposal, a number of MPs demanded that Parliament dissolve the government. They threatened to call for early elections if Parliament failed to dissolve the government.
Its also a very forthright article. There’s also this about the agenda:
Some MPs were surprised that Sheikh Abdullah bin Hussein Al-Ahmar, Speaker of Parliament, presented for discussion the next two months’ agenda without consulting the heads of Parliament and chairmen of party blocs, as required by parliamentary law. They pointed out that some of the contents of the agenda had been discussed in the previous meetings.They added that the agenda did not include any activity essentially relevant to the Parliament’s function of legislating and said that the Cabinet had ignored dozens of laws and agreements sent to it by Parliament. A number of laws and agreements were not included in the Parliament’s agenda, ignoring its main functions, legislation and supervision.
They said that agendas appeared to have been prepared outside Parliament and passed through the Speaker, against parliamentary law.
The YO this week also has more great exploration of the issues of women in Yemen (Don’t even ask me about that, its mind blowing. I’m pre-verbal onthe issue. Just read the articles.)
