“Only if Saleh wouldn’t stand office!” [Archives:2005/897/Front Page]
Yemen Times Staff
SANA'A – Nov. 22 – Former Deputy President Dr. Abdulrhman Al-Baidani has declared that he will run the next presidential election conditional if President Ali Abdullah Saleh would not seek a new mandate.
In his statement, Al-Baidani promised intense reforms in order to “alleviate the sufferings of the people and start real economic development and renaissance”.
In a statement he said: “Corruption has spread and inverted the interests towards achieving progress and development. We have become a nation dependent on foreign aid, loans and grants, while the wealth of the current corrupted officials disappears abroad in overseas banks, the current regime left the Yemeni people eating the crumples from the garbage, that is if hungry stray dogs and cats left them any.”
Al-Baidani referred that the announcement of President Saleh not to seek a new mandate has paved the way for the peaceful handover of power, an aspiration blocked by constitutional provisions that limit nomination for the presidency to the candidate of ruling party. The fifth article in the constitution stipulates handover of power only in word, but factually presidency is limited to the current ruling party.
For that reason, Al-Baidani laid down a set of standards for candidacy: “The MPs and shora council members should have a say in seconding any qualified candidate that is nominated for presidency. There should be an all-party coalition government that will be responsible for running the elections peacefully and not through arms and detentions. The third point is the commitment towards forming a state of institutions in which the government will be responsible before the parliament which would have the power to approve, hold accountable and dissolve it. The forth point is the cancellation of all the procedures that prevent supervision institutions such as Central organization for Control and Audit, and Public Money Prosecution from referring all corrupted persons to judiciary.”
Al-Baidani stressed in his statement on the importance of establishing authentic local governance, in which the people in each governorate elect their representatives. The commissioner of the governorate should be elected by these elected councils, and should only be sacked by the consent of the majority of the governorates' council. The national mineral, marine and petroleum wealth should be distributed equally to all governorates.
He also mentioned that the term of office of the president should be four years, and he can run for only a second term. The president will not be able to run for a third and fourth terms unless another president had taken office after him. This will be an application for handover of power principal.
“The vice president should be in the same president's election list, to be elected together so that the vice president would have a public legitimacy. The constitutional power of the vice president should be defined. Promotion the authority of the control and audit should be considered in order to follow up the military and civil officials' handling of loans and grants. It is important to form a judiciary unit that investigates illegal wealth of the president, ministers and their deputies. A special court is to be formed to try those who are suspected of guilt. The parliament is to suspend their mandate till they are proven innocent. Any official should submit his wealth quittance, for himself, wife(s) and sons before taking office. Then he should do the same at the end of his mandate locally and abroad.”
Al-Baidani considered that the application of this plan would reveal the need for specialists. According to him, this paves the way for an educational plan that will furnish these specializations in a developing series. It will be the base for progress that invests in enhancing the energetic powers of both sexes through furnishing free education and granting scholarships for excellent students.
The preparation of the plan will reveal the need for reconsidering the administrative procedures. The procedures that undermine the progress of modern administration will be removed. Development of judiciary will also be achieved by shortening their procedures, in order to make investors enjoy the fruits of their investments while they are still alive.
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