President Saleh in a Press Conference: “There will be cabinet reshuffle.. and our coalition with Islah will continue” [Archives:2001/10/Front Page]

In a press conference held on Thursday morning, President Ali Abdullah Saleh declared the victory of the GPC in dominating most of the local council seats, and announced that the people who voted for the constitutional amendments reached around 75%. He thanked the Supreme Elections Committee, which had done a lot in such a short period of time. “The period was indeed very short, and this caused a lot of obstacles. Yes, the SEC was able to rise to the occasion and we are satisfied with what it had done” he said. 
Several questions were raised to the president concentrating on the constitutional amendments and local council elections. Yemen Times Editor-in-Chief, Walid Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf asked a question concerning the amendments by saying, “From our surveys and investigations, we realized that most of the electors did not have any idea of the nature of the 17 amendments to be voted on. Wouldn’t it have been better to have those amendments one by one listed for the voters to vote for or against during the referendum?”The president responded by saying that it was a conventional regulation to have all the articles as one entity, and have the elector either supporting all or rejecting the amendments. “I am not fully aware of the technical process in this particular issue, but I believe that the media had played an important role in spreading awareness of the different articles of the amendments, so that the public would realize what they are. But I also believe that it would be a tedious task to have 17 boxes, one for each amendment.”A question was raised by the correspondent of AFP, Hamoud Munassar, asking, “Will the tensions and disputes among the two largest parties result in the ending of the coalition between the two major parties?”President Saleh openly said that whatever happened during the election period is only a temporary issue that cannot alter the unique and distinguished relationship between the two parties. “This had only occurred because of the election fever. After the electoral process is over, we will get back together and our coalition with Islah will continue.”President Saleh pointed out that there are some changes in the governmental cabinet expected to take place in the near future. This came as a response to a question raised by Al-Ayyam concerning the possibility of a reshuffle in the current governmental cabinet, but with no more comments of what they will be. He however stressed that there will be no coalition cabinet, but the government will continue to be dominated and operated by the GPC. 
Interestingly, President Saleh revealed shocking information of the possibility that the technical difficulties that happened regarding the symbol and name changes and confusion may have been done intentionally. “There may be some employees at the SEC committees who tried to influence the results by making some changes to symbols in an effort to favor their parties. The GPC was the most to be disadvantaged because of these acts,” he said. 
“I reveal to you information for the first time. There have been set deals in some centers for certain parties based on tribal methods. As an example, there were areas where a certain figure would say, “to get your candidate, you must vote NO”, which is an indication of abuses to the democratic process in the country,” he said. 
The press conference covered various other international and local issues, and the president openly accused the USA of its double standard and he openly said that, “we know that Arab countries all together are not equal to the USA with Israel. We must understand that Israel is the top priority in the US government’s political strategies… Israel is not the enemy of Palestinians alone, they are the enemies of all Arabs,” he added. 
The President commented on what the General Secretary of Islah Al-Yadumi’s statement in which he said that Islah is the party of tough moments, while the GPC was the party of easy moments by saying that Islah was not the tough party for the president. They were the party that delivered arms and food to the army, and the army that did the rest during the 1994 civil war. 
President Saleh also commented on the USS Cole incident by saying that the case was sent to the attorney to proceed with the judicial process. He indicated that the US investigators insisted on waiting for all the evidence to be collected before starting with the trial hearings. He emphasized what he had already said before regarding the fact that Al-Sa’afani had escaped to Afghanistan and they are chasing after him as he was the main person behind the UCC Cole bombing. 
The president also commented on issues concerning Arab unity, the Arab League, the Palestinian crisis, in which he said that Yemen was the first to announce that Yemen would give the Palestinians USD 14 million, despite the fact that it is among the poorest Arab countries. 

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