Local Governance Law Debates Continue [Archives:1999/43/Law & Diplomacy]

The local authority draft law has created a big controversy as well as dispute before it was presented to the Parliament. I believe that if it is endorsed as it is now, it will be the center of controversy in the future as it will not meet the requirements of all sections of people.
The draft law of the local authority being discussed in the Parliament these days is an all-out violation of the constitution, especially articles No143 and 144 pertaining to the local authority. A close scrutiny of the provisions reveals that the law defines the means of electing the chairmen of the administrative units who have got to be social dignitaries. These persons have the power over local councils that are directly elected on the level of governorates and districts. Though the constitutional articles are as clear as daylight in this issue, the Parliament endorsed the appointment of a committee from among the Parliament Presidium, chairmen of the Parliamentary Blocs and chairmen of the committee and the committee of the local administration and the governmental side to narrow the gap of disparity between them in respect of the constitutional articles. However, I see that as a way of getting around the constitutional articles. Most of the Parliament Members were of the view that chairmen of the administrative units should be chosen either through elections or through selection by those who secure most votes.
We, in the Islah Bloc, believe in the successive steps and gradation. We put forth a suggestion that the chairman in the local council in the governorate or in the district should be elected through free elections. We also propose that in addition another person called the delegate of the central authority in the governorate or district should be there. He should bear the onus of the political issues which should be defined by the law in case any dispute arises between the two. From our viewpoint, the administrative units should enjoy independence in terms of respecting the social dignitary in each administrative unit. We also would like to elect the local organizations freely as well as directly to enhance and uphold the local administration and to reflect the credibility of the democratic process and to expand the base of decision making. We also do approve a balanced operation of centralization.
Therefore, we approve the concepts of gradation in transferring power and authority to the local authority according to a specific mechanism defined by the law.
We also believe that the local authority draft law will help a lot in the social construction, enhance the national unity, polishing the local qualifications, create a competition among the people and the parties as well to render appropriate services. It will also limit financial and administrative corruption and limit unlawful actions in the public affairs. This would obviously enhance transparency and accountability when implementing projects. It will also lead to saving money, efforts and time. This will also activate the public efforts to participate voluntarily in establishing local projects.
These are the objectives that we look forward to achieving through this draft law.
Mohsen Ali Omar Basorah
Member of Parliament

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It is very difficult to highlight the different dimensions of the law of the change from centralization to decentralization in a short article like this. So, I will focus on some points related to naming the law project and the argument about the way governors are chosen. In course of our discussion we will see how politics affects law.
Article (6) of the unity agreement signed on April 22nd 1990, prescribes that the Presidency Council has to form in its first meeting a team to reconsider the administrative division of the Republic so as to reinforce the national unity. All the committees that have been formed for this purpose by Sheikh Abdulla Ben Hussain Al-Ahmar and then by Al-Arashi have failed to reach a law project for the division of the Republic. The constitution, obviously connects the administrative division with the local governance system in its article no. 143. However, the government has given up discussion on the issue of the administrative division. The government seems to revive its efforts to make the “local governance”, as named by the government or as others want it to be changed to the “local governance systems”, a success. In fact, the dispute over the naming of the above law reflects the divergences in perspective of the two sides of Yemen before unification. For example, constitutions of the “Yemen Arab Republic”, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1970, used the term “Local Governance” while the constitutions of the ” People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen”, 1990, 1978, used the term “Local Authority”. This might have been accidentally reflected in the unity documents of the years, 1990 and 1994. For example, the 1990 and 1994 constitutions of the Republic of Yemen used the term “Local Authority” while the Republican Decree no. 52 for the year 1991 was issued under the title ” Law of the Local Governance”. The term of the “local governance” has also been used in the two law projects presented by the government of Abdul Aziz Abdul Gani and the government of Dr. Abdul Karim Al-Iriany, while the project presented by Dr. Faraj Ben Ganem was titled the “Local Authority Project” which corresponds to the nomenclature of constitutions of the P.D.R.Y.
On the subject of the local authority and whether it is to be elected or appointed, the experiences of the two Yemens do not coincide. To make it clear, the constitutions of the Yemen Arab Republic left the matter to be settled by law. However, article (112) in the PDRY constitution for the year 1978, stipulated the election of the local authority directly by the people. Article (118) in the integrated constitution for the year 1990, stated that every administrative unit must have elected local councils. This was amended later on in article (144) which provided for the direct election of the local councils. The difference between the two experiences is, in fact, due to the different histories of the two Yemens. For instance, the PDRY experienced the administrative division and the environmental independence during the British regime, the Arab South Union and the local councils after independence. This has never been experienced in the Yemen Arab Republic when parties and elections did not exist. This means that the government system before and after the revolution of 26th of September was central. Surprisingly, during the regime of the “Imam” there used to be de facto. decentralization The tribal system rejects centralism because it does not agree with the “tribal authority”. Another surprising thing is that the attitude of Sheikh Abdulla Ben Hussain Al-Ahmar, Chairman of the Parliament, Head of the Reform Party(Islah) and leader of Hashid tribes, as well as his party is no longer in agreement with the tribal perspective as it used to be before the unification. Now he is a major supporter of establishing a certain kind of administrative and financial decentralization. However, he is rejecting the idea of local authority. The same change in attitude is noticed in the president and the People’s General Congress (PGC).
The elections program of the PGC envisages the following:
1- Applying the law of the local administration at the level of governors after making the necessary constitutional amendments.
2- Electing local councils
This agrees with one of the demands of the Yemeni Socialist Party although the PGC has added “with making the necessary amendments” to it. More surprising is the fact that the Islah party whose program is apparently different from that of the PGC, supported the PGC when signing the Amman agreement on February 20th 1994, which vested the local authority with much more power. Then they signed the constitutional amendments in 1994. What’s happened to the two parties in general and the PGC in particular? Why are they backing out? Although adopting a law project for the administrative division has been difficult, the PGC was able to issue a Republican decree no. (7) for the year 1997 which states establishing Defense Councils. Will this concern about security be able to reach an acceptable dimension that guarantees giving local governance the green light to be directly elected by people? This should be done within the framework of moving towards a liberal and democratic system that distinguishes the Legislative, Executive and Judicial authorities on one side and the central authority and the local authority on the other.
Dr. Mohammed Ali Al-Saqqaf
Legal Expert

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