Vice President at the Inauguration Ceremony of the Training Workshop for Local Elections: It is not easy to spread awareness on Elections among an armed and tribal population [Archives:2001/02/Law & Diplomacy]
January 8 2001
In his speech, the vice president expressed his appreciation to the Supreme Elections Committee for its hard work in organizing the event in such a short period of time, as it was not clear until recently whether the elections would even be held. He stated that the local elections would not run without any hitches. There is little awareness in the public of the benefits and stages of the process. He also openly stated that it would be a difficult job to ensure an election without any problems because of the challenge of spreading awareness in a population that is mostly armed and of tribal backgrounds.
During his speech, he emphasized the importance of national unity and not involving partisanship, or tribal or ethnic differences in the election process. In his concluding statement, he confirmed the importance of making the process a success by taking an unbiased stand during all the phases of the election, and taking advantage of the great democratic values in such a process.
Mr. Alawi Al-Attas, the Chairman of the Supreme Elections Committee also gave a statement at the beginning of the session, in which he explained the various steps taken by the committee to ensure a fair election process. He stressed the importance of not taking any biased action whatsoever. He made clear that he would be exerting a lot of effort into making the process run smoothly, fairly and without any major difficulties.
Al-Attas ended his speech apologizing for dropping the Shabwa governorate from the official newspaper published by the committee -Elections Newspaper- by saying, It is true that we have mistakenly dropped Shabwa governorate from our lists in the newspaper, but it has never and will never be dropped from our hearts. after which he received a lot of applause.
Interestingly, during the session, a lady from the second row of attendees handed a paper to the vice president during the ceremony, in which she complained that women should not have been assigned the back seats, and at least one lady should have sat in the front row. She stated that this contradicts what was read from the Quran at the opening of the ceremony, and it also contradicts the governments calls for equal rights between men and women. However, there was no response whatsoever to that particular complaint.
WNC Urges Parties to Select Female Nominees
The Womens National Committee started a program this week that aims to encourage womens participation in Local Administration Elections. It was noticed that among all parties and even among independent nominees the percentage of women was almost nil.
Mrs. Huria Mashoor, Deputy of WNC met with the Chairman of the Supreme Elections Committee, Mr. Alawi Al Attas earlier this week and discussed with him this issue. He said that there is nothing in the constitution that prevents females from participating in the elections as candidates, and it is the responsibility of the parties to ensure female participation. Hence, female representatives of the parties were invited to the WNC in an attempt to encourage participation.
Mr. Al-Attas confirmed his regret that there arent any female nominees in the Local administrative elections. He said that the parties did not put forward any female representative except for the YSP in the Aden governarate. He added that the Supreme Elections Committee does not impose any restrictions on the gender of the participants and added that it is up to them to ensure their participation.
Dr. Amat Al-Razzaq Ali Ahmed head of the female Activity Center in GPC, said that one of her parties main ambitions is to increase womens participation in all fields and in politics in particular. But she stated that this is very difficult since it is well known that discrimination against women is still very much a part of Yemeni society. Nonetheless she said that their party would be willing to encourage qualified and interested female candidates if they could be found.
Mrs. Rana Ahmed Ghanim, member of the Capital Secretariat of the Unionist Nassrite Party, agreed with Dr. Amat Al-Razzaq, and added that women themselves can not accept their positions. After all we are still a developing society, and we can not compare the kind of democracy we have with that of the advanced countries, she said. She also stated that the responsibility falls on the shoulders of the parties policy, because first off the party aims to gain the highest number of seats. No party is willing to sacrifice an opportunity for its advancement for the sake of the womens fight against discrimination.
Mrs. Ilham Najib said the Islah party, agreed strongly with the aforementioned. She also said, Our party is still unsure about participation in the election, whether with male or female candidates. Yet, if we do participate, it really is important to take well studied steps in this process. Having a woman as a candidate is surely means losing a seat in most of the governrates of Yemen. ] Though there is more at work here than voting, its more about agreements and settlements, but still there is a big question mark when it comes to women participation in elections, all parties are doing their best to get womens votes, especially since more than 50% of the population is female. Isnt it only logical that a women would give her vote to another woman. Mrs. Huria Mashoor wondered. Having more women in decision-making positions is what we aim for, regardless of the party or the organization. We are willing to do the necessary campaigning in order to encourage any women who are interested in campaigning in these local council elections.
In order to find out the other side of the coin we had a small talk with Miss. Suad Al-Qadasi, General Director of Womans Forum for research and Training, here are her comments.
Firstly, I would like to comment on what Mr. Al-Attas said. If we are talking about a developed society then this could be applicable, but since we are in Yemen we have to enforce womens participation by law. We need not amend the constitution for the sake of womens participation in the local councils elections. However, we must impose certain rules that force the parties to ensure participation of females in their party. What we could do is force each party to put forth one female participant in each province to work on the campaign exactly as if she were a man.
Concerning womens reticence to participate, she said: Its true that the attitude of women during the last 10 years proves that there are obvious drawbacks to female participation. The rate of women who participate in all fields of life has gone down dramatically. That is why we find this stigma against female nominees, even among women who are considered politically active, and aware.
Also we cant neglect the effect of the return of Yemeni immigrants who used to live in the Gulf. The effect is not only economically but also culturally symbolized in theses regressive attitude. There is so much discrimination in our society against women. It is not enough that the law only protects her rights, we need to safeguard their mentality as well. What is the use of a law, which in not implemented?
The WNC has yet to meet with the General Secretary of the different parties. The Yemen Times will follow this issue. It is still to be seen whether there will be a place for women in the local councils by the time our next issue hits the streets.
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