Governor elections: The horse is racing with its shadow [Archives:2008/1156/Opinion]

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May 19 2008

Adel Yahya
Seemingly, gubernatorial elections, which the ruling party wanted to be a solution to some pressing issues in the country, have transformed into an internal problem for the party. And this problem may go beyond limit of the ruling party, notably in some governorates.

After the General People Congress (GPC) general secretariat approved the final list of gubernatorial candidates, numerous problems and reactions arose in many governorates.

The situation implies that GPC grassroots reject or are unsatisfied with the list of gubernatorial candidates approved by their party general secretariat. In the first reaction to the GPC leadership over naming Shabwa gubernatorial candidate, the Zubeir Tribe of the governorate closed the Shabwa-based GPC branch, protesting against nomination of Dr. Ali Hassan Al-Ahmadi for the governor post.

The tribe announced its backing for former Local Council secretary-general Dr. Nasser Mohsen Ba-Aum as the eligible candidate to run for governor. Meanwhile, reliable sources said that other tribes protested against the ruling party general secretariat dropping local councilors from gubernatorial candidates' list.

These tribes sent a letter to GPC Chairman Ali Abdullah Saleh, threatening to prevent GPC staff from entering the ruling party's branch in the governorate until they negotiate and reach a consensus on the GPC gubernatorial candidate. They accused GPC staff in the governorate of dropping their tribe's candidate from the list.

In the Beidha governorate, staff of the GPC branch rejected a gubernatorial candidate selected by the party's general secretariat, wondering whey the secretariat responded to the desire of Parliament member Yasser Al-Awadhi in determining the candidate and edging out role of the majority of local councilors, of whom 223 voted in favor of the governorate GPC branch Mohammed Nasser Al-Ameri as the eligible gubernatorial candidate.

Conveners who hold an emergency meeting in the Beidha governorate described the decision taken by the GPC general secretariat as merely “an attempt to fuel conflict between GPC members”.

More than 150 local councilors, who attended the emergency meeting, vowed to drop the GPC general secretariat-selected candidate from the list and support Al-Ameri.

In Aden, head of GPC branch in the governorate Dr. Mohammed Al-Abbadi is still insisting to compete with Dr. Adnan Al-Jefri, a gubernatorial candidate selected by the ruling party general secretariat.

Al-Abbadi said to Newsyemen.net, the general secretariat should have resorted to GPC leaders in the governorate to nominate three persons of whom it can select one,” confirming that he will run for governor as an independent candidate to compete with Al-Jefri for the post because he is confident that local councilors will vote for him.

Having a glance at the applications and bids made by GPC bidders in the various governorates, mainly as the Joint Meeting Parties have not named any gubernatorial candidate to run for governor in any governorate, it has been made apparent that the horse, being the symbol of GPC, is racing with its shadow amid the growing conflict between GPC leaders who failed to agree on certain candidates.
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[archive-e:1156-v:18-y:2008-d:2008-05-19-p:opinion]