Al-Balagh [Archives:2008/1190/Press Review]
Tuesday, Sept 9, 2008
Top Stories
– Al-Janadi: SCER is legitimate and we are not concerned about compromise
– Religious Zaidi cleric released from political security detention
– NDI Resident Director meets with representatives of EU and international organizations
The Al-Balagh weekly learned that Peter Dimitroff, Resident Director of National Democratic Institute (NDI) has returned to Sana'a after he had been absent over the past time period for an important mission related with operations of the Institute that is concerned with election affairs and democracy in our country, the weekly reported.
It went on to say that NDI is pondered upon as the most important international agency that contributes to correcting democratic practices in the nation. Composition of the Supreme Commission for Election and Referendum (SCER) and dialogue between ruling and opposition parties on election law amendments over the past time period are some of the most prominent events related with democracy.
The international organization resented waste of time on futile dialogue between political parities. It holds the view that dialoguing outside Parliament is merely a waste of time, insisting that Parliament should play its role in this regard.
Political party leaders in Yemen are waiting for NDI's comment on the Parliament's most recent step that annulled proposed election law amendments and approved the old version of the law. JMP harshly criticized NDI during the past few months over statements made by the Institute's Director, which the opposition coalition viewed as serving the ruling party and its government at the expense of enhancing democracy in the country.
The Institute cited in its report that Yemen's 2006 election was fair, adding that SCER managed the electoral process better than it did before.
The weekly learned that Dimitroff will hold a string of meetings with representatives of EU and other international organizations to examine the various steps taken to compose SCER and amend the election system.
——
[archive-e:1190-v:16-y:2008-d:2008-09-15-p:press]
