Women Comprise One Percent of Candidates in Yemen’s Local Elections
There are 5 female candidates out of of 470 at governorate level, and 40 of 4200 at district level:
YO: Some 470 applicants, including five women, were reported to have submitted their intentions run at the governorate level for September’s local elections. At the district level 4200 applications, 40 of which are from women, were accepted by nationwide committees of the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum (SCER).
Dr. Mohammed al-Sayyani, head of the technical sector at the SCER said these figures were unexpected as many more people than had been anticipated, presented their applications to run for the coming local elections. Dr. al-Sayyani said that at the level of districts, the number of independent applicants is higher.
“At the level of the governorates, the number of applicants from the General Peoples’ Congress was highest, followed by applicants from the Joint Meeting Parties,” he said. 80 application centers were suspended across the country; most of them are in Marib, Abyan and al-Jawf, according to al-Sayyani. “The reasons behind stopping work in those centers, were social problems, as citizens asked the government to finalize the work process in various projects in their regions, and also they have some disagreements about certain candidates.”
He expected that these problems would disappear within two or three days as the commission’s campaign for raising awareness among people will be launched soon. The committee will set up a hotline to present advice and assistance to female candidates, whose presence seems to be very small.
“The reason behind the absence of female candidates is the lack of support from the political parties for the women,” he said. He urged the parties to encourage female candidates for the local council elections and provide the necessary support.
Finally the ruling party and opposition agree on something.
The ruling party, the General People’s Congress (GPC), called upon other parties to let fair portion of their seats in local councils for women. Member of the GPC’s General Committee, Ahmad al-Zahri, expressed hope that political parties reach a code of conduct in this regard to determine certain portion for women candidates to run-up local election.
Al-Zahri said the GPC decided to give women 15% of its seats in local councils, but he did not give NewsYemen details on the number of women candidate who will run the local councils for GPC.He said the GPC had nominated 6,000 candidates in most governorates and districts in accordance with the GPC bylaw.
Meanwhile, the head of information sector in the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum (SCER) Abdu al-Janadi said that the main committees in governorates and districts received 8263 candidates for local councils, including 36 women most of them independent.Al-Janadi said that 606 of the candidates will compete on seats in local councils in governorates, including 256 independents, 226 from the General People’s Congress (GPC), 180 candidates for the Islah Party and 30 candidates from the Yemeni òòSocialist party (YSP).
He also said that the candidates for local councils in districts reached 7657 including 3732 candidates for GPC, 1914 independents, 1597 for the Islah Party, 335 for YSP, 46 Nasserite Unionist Party and other candidates for other parties.
Al-Janadi said that 21 women candidates represent GPC, three represent YSP and one from Yemen’s Sons Union Party.
He said that the other 11 women candidates are independent.
You really have to hand it to the independent woman candidates.
