Local Governance Law:  TO BE OR NOT TO BE [Archives:1999/41/Front Page]

SANAA: Up to yesterday, the debate in the parliament on whether to fully implement the local governance law continued for its 8th days. Yet, there is still no assurance that the parliament will endorse the law. Some members of PGC and Islah parties in the parliament, especially the ones with tribal roots refuse to endorse the part in the law which stipulates that all governors be elected elected by the people of the province rather than assigned by the authorities. However, they agree on the general concept of local governance. The other members have given their support to the law as it is.   Local governance law will enable the people of each governorate to elect their governor, to have their own budget, to make their own decisions, to have their own future plans, and to eventually have their chances and opportunities to build their province. These are indeed extremely critical days for our country. The parliament will decide whether Yemen will become a country which implements local governance, and hence effectively takes its first step towards decentralization, or prefers to stay as a country with 100% central rule. 
In the mean time, the consultative council is working on the draft of the privatization law. As a Consultative Council Member told the Yemen Times, “We are currently drafting the law that would not only enable the privatization of the electronic media such as TV channels etc., but which will eventually turn out to be the green light to privatizing everything. I mean everything.” 
After completing the final draft and granted the permission of the president, the law will be submitted to the parliament for voting. It seems that after its vacation, the parliament is back to work intensively, for it has a limited time to approve the laws that are still suspended. 
On the same level, the president was a bit tough on the government asking for a complete report and schedule on how best to implement the election agenda . He gave them a deadline of 90 days to have it completed.
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