As Parliament holds its first session, Ba Jammal to form new cabinet:No surprises [Archives:2003/635/Front Page]

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May 12 2003

Yasser Mohammed Al-Mayyasi
Sanaa (Saturday May 10) – President Saleh issued a presidential decree (no 6 for 2003) on appointing Ba Jammal as the prime minister of the new government and instructed him to form the new cabinet. In his meeting with Ba Jammal on Saturday, President Saleh stressed the need to appoint individuals who would demonstrate their abilities in living up to the public's expectations. He called upon the premier to include new blood, qualified, and honest young individuals to continue the country's quest for development and prosperity.
Among the points mentioned as a priority for the new government were security and reforms in the economic, developmental, financial, administrative, and judicial sectors of the country.
“You must give due importance to education, which should then be a means to serve development and fight poverty You should work on reducing unemployment by providing new job opportunities and promoting investment.” The president said.

Parliament holds first session
In its first session held on Saturday, the parliament approved the appointment of Sheikh Abdullah bin Hussein Al-Ahmar as the parliament's speaker by acclamation. All winners in the elections were present in the parliament except for 4 seats, whose results are still disputed till date.
However, the parliament session which was somewhat an introductory session was also an opportunity to witness the increasing gap between the ruling party and the opposition.
According to latest statistics given by the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum, the winning members of parliament were declared as follows:
General People's Congress: 226 seats won with 58% of the votes
Islah: 47 seats won with 22.55% of the votes
Yemeni Socialist Party: 7 seats won with 4.69% of the votes
Nasserite Party: 3 seats won with 1.85% of the votes
Baath Party (of Syria): 2 seats won with 0.68% of the votes
Independents: 14 seats won with 9.9% of the votes
It is worth noting that Sheikh Abdullah Al-Ahmar alone got more than 24,350 votes, which constitutes around 0.5% of the overall votes in the elections.
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