JMP demands tangible role in managing September elections [Archives:2006/953/Front Page]
By: Mohammed Bin Sallam
SANA'A, June 5 ) On Monday, politicians and jurists at a symposium organized by Al-Sahwa.net, unanimously singled-out the failure of the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum (SCER) to improve upon the electoral process in Yemen.
Lawyer Jamal Al-Jaabi said voter registry is one of the basic building blocks for attaining legal legitimacy and electoral management represents an important cornerstone but is ineffective unless the ruler desires effective participation.
At the symposium, organized under the theme, “Political system legitimacy under forged voter registry,” and held at the Yemeni Center for Strategic Studies, Al-Jaabi added that the SCER is playing a political role parallel to opposition parties and the ruling party, whose involvement has caused the commission to be in a state of disorder and dependence.
He also pointed out that the dispute with the SCER is attributed to absence of judicial reference and is a type of injustice against the judiciary to be entrusted with deciding a matter for which it's unqualified, especially with the non-existence of administrative judiciary specialized in challenges and absence of executive laws and understanding of judicial challenges.
Al-Jaabi also affirmed that the security committee controls the electoral process, despite the fact that it's not found in relevant law except in faint indications. He demanded a draft law granting actual management to political parties and dwarfing the security committee's role.
In his working paper, Islah party's Ibrahim Al-Haaer said the SCER announced 64,000 repeated names, 126 children and two million similar names on voter registers and confirmed 25 million falsifications. He added that Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) statistics affirm that 30 percent of registry volume involves forgery.
The director of Islah general secretariat's electoral office holds the ruling party and the SCER responsible for such tampering and falsification, especially given the merger between the two. He said security committee reports are devoid of violations by the ruling party, only registering those of the opposition. “We haven't heard of any violator sent to investigation or courts. The commission doesn't differ with the ruling party but with the opposition,” he added.
Dr. Abdulmalik Al-Mutawakil of the Union of People's Forces party said the JMP will work toward whatever benefits the political reform program and political struggle.
As for political analyst Ali Saif Hassan, he said the basis of the legislation is effectiveness, adding that Yemen is requested to play a functional international role embodied in active participation against terror, accomplishing a form of democracy and economic reforms and providing stability and regional security.
Activist politician Abdeh Salem said the ruling party mobilizes the street and communities, claiming that openness in Yemen is meant for the balance of powers due to Gulf economic superiority and that what's required is producing regional and international leadership and participating in elections.
Tariq Al-Shami, head of the GPC's information and culture office, demanded the JMP seriously compete in presidential and local elections instead of arguing about the coming political system's legality under an electoral register they allege is falsified in favor of the ruling party. He added that the SCER wasn't formed this year and has been working since 2001, noting that its formation wasn't submitted as a case for discussion by the JMP until January.
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