GPC Wins Governors “Elections”
Candidates of General People’s Congress for governors’ post won in most Yemeni provinces, while independent candidates won in the provinces of Al baydha, Al Jawf and Marib. The election id Adalea province postponed due to lack of quorum.
The Election supervising committee in Marib province has announced the independent candidate for the province governor post Naji al-Zayedi to win.
He came ahead of the ruling party nominee Hussein Hazeb with 141 of 206 eligible voters against 36 for Hazeb.
The origin number of the eligible voters in the province electoral body reaches 268.
On the other hand, Ahmed al-Maisari won in the Abyan governor elections with 125 voters against 94 for his rival Muhammad Saleh Hadran.
In Hodiedah Ahmed Salim al-Jabali overwhelmingly won the elections.
SANA’A // Yemen held its first vote for provincial governors yesterday, with the ruling party winning all but three of the 20 districts, while an opposition boycott in a fourth led to the vote being cancelled.
In Mareb, al Baidha and al Jawf, the winning ruling party members ran as independents after they opposed the party’s choice of candidate, while in al Dhale’, where the election was boycotted by the opposition, a governor will be appointed by Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president.
The election followed a decision by Mr Saleh last month to allow 7,498 local council members to elect the mayor of the capital, Sana’a, and the governors of 20 provinces. But the opposition said that the election was a farce, as candidates are not chosen by the party but by the party’s leadership.
Still, Abdulqader Hilal, the minister of local authority, called the election a “courageous step”.
“It will boost decentralisation and enable the local people to run their own issues by elected councils which can address the local communities need for development,” he said.
Mr Hilal, whose ministry oversaw the poll, said the elections were part of a package of local governance reform.
However, he did not deny allegations that the decision was taken to minimise growing public dissatisfaction over economic hardships sweeping the country, which has led to rebellion in the north and protests in south.
“Even if we assume the [elections] have come to address political demands, let it be, so long as it secures stability and development,” he said.
“This shows the people in charge are responsive to the public demands,” he said.
The poll comes amid bitter division between the ruling and opposition parties over political reform.
Talks between the ruling People’s General Congress and Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), a coalition of five opposition parties that includes Islah, Yemen’s main Islamist party, seem to have reached a deadlock.
Following their failure to reach an agreement on some political reforms, the ruling party last month unilaterally amended the local authority law to hold elections for governors.
Mr Saleh put forward a package of political reforms last September. They include retaining a presidential style of government, the recruitment of police from local communities, holding direct elections for the heads of local councils and limiting terms to five and four years for the president and members of parliament. There would also be a 15 per cent quota for women in parliament.
The opposition, however, wants to change the style of elections and government, preferring a parliamentary system with a less powerful president.
“We opted to boycott because we believe the authorities have prevented the citizens their right to elect their governors directly,” said Aidarous al Nakeeb, head of the opposition socialist party caucus in parliament. “The JMP participation would have been a crime against the people and their aspirations for broad local governance which should be a part of an overall package of political reforms we have been debating for years.”
Mr Nakeeb said ruling party members at provincial level were not allowed to choose candidates as only the top leadership could do that.
“This is not elections but appointment in the form of election, for these governors will be named by a president, they will be accountable before the president who has the right to change them,” he said.
In al Dhale’, hundreds took to the streets to denounce the elections but were dispersed by police. Scores were arrested, including students from Aden university who decried the vote as a “farce” and demanded the release of detainees who were arrested several weeks ago after violent protests in the southern regions.
According to the local authority ministry, 37 candidates were competing for 21 seats. In 11 provinces, only one candidate representing the ruling party stood for elections.
Since 1990, Yemen has been seen by the international community and donor nations as one of the few Arab states taking concrete steps towards democratisation, based mainly on three successful parliamentary elections held in 1993, 1997 and 2003.
In 2006, presidential and local council elections in Yemen were described by European Union election observers as “open and genuine” and a “positive development in Yemen’s democratisation process”, despite some irregularities.
Mr Saleh, representing the People’s General Congress, won 77.1 per cent of the presidential vote while his main challenger, Faisal bin Shamlan, of the JMP, secured 21.8 per cent.
Peter Dimitroff, the Yemen representative for the US-based National Democratic Institute, said both the ruling party and the opposition have been not been able to address the public needs.
“It seems the political parties in Yemen are going to fail because they are obsessed with elections,” Mr Dimitroff said. “They are away from the real concerns of the citizens.”
He said these elections would not increase local democracy unless governors are given more powers.
“It is not the case these elections will increase local democracy because these governors are only acting as administrators for central government policies. Unless they are given more [power] regarding taxes, local sources and regional legislation, these governors will have no more ability to change the situation on the ground.”
According to a poll conducted last week by Yemen Polling Centre, 78.3 per cent of the 600 surveyed respondents said the election was significant for Yemen, while 21.5 per cent felt it had no significance. Only 11.3 per cent of the respondents said they did not know about the election.
