Al-Wahdawi [Archives:2008/1166/Press Review]

Friday, June 20, 2008
Top stories

– Broad meeting for JMP member parties to discuss current turmoil

– Arab campaign in solidarity with Yemeni journalist Ezzat Mustafa

– Interior Ministry orders police to close arms trade shops in the various Yemeni governorates

– Ruling party pressures Yemeni Journalist syndicate to postpone its fourth conference

– JMP denounces ruling party's insistence to amend election law alone

Higher Council of Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) strongly denounced ruling party's insistence via its parliamentary bloc to amend the currently effective General Election Law alone according to its own visions with the aim of dominating the Supreme Commission for Election and Referendum (SCER) alone and excluding other political parties, the website reported.

The council accused the ruling party of ignoring other partners in the political equation and underestimating role of their Parliament members, describing the procedure as a flagrant violation of the Constitution of the Republic of Yemen and other effective laws. It added that GPC breached a previous agreement it signed with opposition parties in this regard.

The opposition bloc's council released a statement, of which a copy was obtained by the Al-Wahdawi.net, saying that amending the General Election Law concerns all the political parties involved in the electoral processes. It added that reaching a consensus on amending this law is an indispensable condition for maintaining the law's legitimacy and constitutionality.

“The ruling party's parliamentary bloc is not entitled to amend the law alone his bloc has no right to violate the constitution in this regard,” the statement reads. “Such a procedure taken by the ruling party (excluding opposition parties in amending the election law) implies that this party is not serious to help Yemen conduct free and fair elections on time.”
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[archive-e:1166-v:16-y:2008-d:2008-06-23-p:press]