Precious citizen,precious vote [Archives:2006/981/Viewpoint]
Editor
Yemen is witnessing it's most competitive environment in recent history. The competitive spirit in the local elections give a very real feel to the to the change we are feeling for the first time since 1990. It seems these days the citizen is king. Local council candidates are seeking their citizens approval, respect and, most important, votes.
These days are the best for many. Printing houses cannot catch their breath finishing one job after another including posters, leaflets and campaigning materials. There is a feast in almost every avenue held by the one who hopes to win the locals' votes through their stomachs. Suddenly the dirt roads no one seemed to care about are being paved and the pending paper work is being signed at the speed of light. Many short-term jobs are created as a part of these campaigns – a boost for the economy and for the citizens.
But perhaps what's best are the big promises to eradicate a huge backlog of problems accumulated through decades of bad management and flawed governments. Candidates are throwing promises left and right like candy for the desperate citizens to catch. Out of the blue Marib is no longer a home for tourist kidnappers and Al-Iman University is not a hub for terrorist and dangerous fundamentals.
All this and more will continue until judgment day, or say the day of voting. Yemen is going through is a very healthy step towards true democracy. There is still a long way to go but seeing citizens recognize how their vote actually will count is very encouraging.
It's very important to see how things proceed after the election experience is over. Some are speculating an extremely turbulent time between election day and when the results are confirmed. So far incidents of violence are already erupting, but hopefully they will remain isolated and rare incidents. Yet even if our democratic experience is messy, it is still a step forward because it means elections are a serious issue and the citizen's opinion does matter.
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