The Disappointing Local Councils
The capital Sana’a witnessed on Tuesday rallies of citizens asking president Saleh to run the coming presidential elections, he decided not to run last July, 2005.
The demonstrations come a day before the General Peoples’ Congress (GPC) holds its exceptional conference to declare its candidate for presidency.
On the other hand, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMPs) condemned an appeal raised to president Saleh on behalf of all participants in the 4th conference of the Local Councils held in Sana’a early this week.
JMPs said it was not the right of the conference leadership to raise the appeal on behalf of all participants as the conference included leaders and members of opposition parties which till now refuse Saleh’s nomination for more term.
“We did not discuss the appeal and it has never been included in the conference’s agenda,” said a statement by JMPs.
The statement disparaged such behavior that it described as “indecent”, confirming that a conference held to discuss the future of decentralization should not be interested in internal problems of the ruling party.
The statement also criticized the final communiqué of the conference that it said did not meet aspirations.
“The report of the minister of local administration ignored many issues and obstacles that have faced local councils in the past period and it did not point to the level of implementing recommendations of previous conferences,” said JMPs.
It also said that the work paper related to enhancing decentralization experience overlooked the request of most members of the conference to directly and freely elect governors and managers of administrative units.
The JMPs also condemned the liquidation of the local council in Marib since it has been elected till now and preventing the council to distribute its statement at the conference hall, considering that as “black point in the decentralization experience”.
“The local councils could achieve some achievements by efforts of their members, but what we have achieved is not sufficient due to many obstacles such as lack of financial and administrative authorities,” said JMPs.
