Opposition parties threaten to boycott elections [Archives:2002/30/Local News]

BY MOHAMED BIN SALLAM
YEMEN TIMES STAFF
Yemeni Opposition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) have threatened on July 14 to boycott the upcoming parliamentary elections and demanded from the President of the Republic to interfere and stop the Supreme Elections Committee (SEC) from forming the field committees without the fair participation of all parties. This comes after the opposition parties failed to agree among themselves on how to proceed regarding upcoming elections.
In the meeting held at the Peoples General Congress (PGC) Permanent Committee building last week, PGC Secretary General Dr. Abdulkareem Al-Iriani presented a proposal of President Saleh the leader of the ruling party to end the dispute. The opposition parties spokesman told Yemen Times that the ruling party insists on appointing two PGC members out of three in every electoral committee and illegally aims to force the opposition parties to accept this situation by voting for the proposal and by taking advantage of the PGCs majority in the committee to get the proposal through.
It may result in an early boycott of the parliamentary election by the JMP, especially if the ruling party continues the same policy and if the president does not amend his proposal in this regard. On the other hand, the JMP drafted its own proposal including a criterion on which the opposition political parties would be given more representatives at the committees, which is at odds with the ruling partys original proposal.
Mr. Khalid al-Shareef, the chairman of the SEC said that the SEC will continue in forming the electoral committees as proposed by the ruling party without paying any attention to the opposition parties complaints which seem to be going in vain. Mr. Khalid declared that the 5 pro-government parties handed over their lists and the SEC will continue forming the committees based on the election law which prohibit forming a committee of one party.
It is worth mentioning that the election registration period would start in September and would end in 30 days according to the election law, paving the way to hold the parliamentary elections on time in April 2003.
 

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