Opposition parties meet U.S., international organizations [Archives:2002/32/Front Page]

Representatives of opposition Joint Meeting Parties and Islah party have Saturday met with American ISES and NDI organizations representatives plus a number of international organizations, concerned with civil society organizations affairs and elections, and a number of European diplomats.
Opposition parties have presented, during the meeting, their stance towards the question of forming electoral committees, confirming that the criteria they proposed for taking part in the committees of registration are the basis for their participation.
The parties have further mentioned that the Elections Supreme Committee is controlled by the ruling party and that the successive amendments effected by the government do undermine the entire process of democracy, and threaten future of democracy in Yemen. They claimed that following the 11 September events, the regime in Yemen feels that the donor countries have been giving the question of security much more attention than others. On their part, representatives of the international organizations affirmed that they would play mediators role between opposition parties and the government, stressing it was necessary that dialogues continue till a stance satisfying all parties was reached, as dialogue serves the democratic process in Yemen.
Joint Meeting Parties had earlier asked the government to adopt on regular basis certain proportional representation in electoral processes to be given to the 21 political parties registered at the parties affairs committee, including the Yemen Socialist Party, according to the volume of its representation in the 1993 parliamentary elections.
As for the remainder proportions they asked to be distributed among the parties represented in the parliament according to number of votes each party wins.

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