Saleh wins another term, opposition criticizes results [Archives:2006/984/Front Page]

Yasser Al-Mayasi
SANA'A, Sept. 24 ) At a press conference Saturday, the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum (SCER) announced that General People's Congress presidential candidate Ali Abdullah Saleh won another seven-year term. However, opposition parties rejected the vote result.

Based on totals released by the SCER, Saleh won 4,149,673 votes (77.17 percent), while his closest rival, Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) candidate Faisal Bin Shamlan received 1,173,075 votes (21.82 percent).

SCER Chairman Khalid Al-Sharif confirmed that independent candidates Fathi Al-Azab and Ahmed Al-Majidi and National Opposition Assembly candidate Yasin Abdu Sa'eed received 24,524 votes (0.46 percent), 8,324 votes (0.4 percent) and 21,642 votes (0.15 percent), respectively.

According to the SCER, only 6,025,818 of 9,248,456 registered voters cast their ballots in the Sept. 20 presidential and local council elections. Voting turnout was figured at 65.15 percent, with only 5,377,238 of the total votes valid, as 648,580 votes were canceled.

The SCER said voting didn't take place in five of a total 333 districts nationwide, whereas polling or vote counting was suspended at 147 of 5,620 polling centers around the republic.

Al-Sharif declared that in compliance with Article 108 of Yemen's Constitution and Article 70 of the Election Law, Saleh was re-elected to another seven-year term, beginning from when the constitutional oath is administered.

However, opposition parties refused to accept the vote result, alleging that Saleh won only 68.86 percent of votes, not 77.17. According to an official JMP source, the voting results are “fraudulent and incorrect.”

The same source added that the SCER committed several violations and began announcing presidential election voting results only two hours after voting ended Wednesday. Opposition said that starting to announce voting results at such an early time disclosed the SCER's intention to commit voting fraud.

Opposition parties affirmed that they'll contact their leaders to specify their attitude toward the presidential voting result.

Five candidates ran for Yemen's presidency: GPC candidate Ali Abdullah Saleh, JMP candidate Faisal Bin Shamlan, National Opposition Assembly candidate Yasin Abdu Sa'eed and independent candidates Fathi Al-Azab and Ahmed Al-Majidi.

As for local council elections, 1,612 candidates at the governorate level vied for 431 seats, while 18,901 candidates at the district level competed for 6,896 seats, Al-Mutamar Net reported.

Both local and international observers participated in monitoring the Sept. 20 presidential and local elections, with more than 45,000 local observers and 400 international observers representing more than 15 organizations.

GPC local council candidates at the governorate level in Ibb won an overwhelming majority, leaving only two seats for other political party candidates.

With voting suspended at three polling centers, as well as vote counting at five other centers in Ibb, 390 GPC candidates won local council seats at the district level, compared to only 62 seats for other political party and independent candidates.
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