What is to Come After the Presidential Elections? [Archives:1999/42/Law & Diplomacy]

Tariq Al-Shami
Vice Secretary General of the Popular Forces Federation
Regarding the future of Yemen after the Presidential Elections, I do not see any reason for optimism. This can clearly be seen in the aftermath of the elections. If the President of the Republic is be capable of over-coming the influence, the political to combat the corruption, and the legislation of the President of the Republic is be concentrated on the public structure and democracy. Thereafter, I will talk about the fulfillment electoral agenda of the President Saleh. This program does not go beyond its political limits. It does not reflect the real level which ought to be taken into account.
For instance, it does not deal with the local regime. The program also does not give priority to reconstructing local authority, which may ensure practice of its rights freely. The Presidential Elections expected to help the citizens and make the ruler implement his national agenda work at the same time. Even though, this is the first time in the history of the country, yet when we have a novel experiment with democratic processes, I have a feeling that President Saleh has the ability of coping with the new developments.
As it is well known the opposition is a part of the political regime in the country. As such they should know that the opposition’s project is not confined to the Presidential Elections only. The Opposition has difficult responsibilities. For instance, it should think how to find a solution for the economic, social and political reforms. Our aim is not to find fault with any one in the government. We aim at reform of the whole regime. I only wish that this complicated problem came to an end. As early as possible the opposition’s project aims at serving the national interests. The decision of the Opposition Coordination Council for the non-participation of the elections was taken because of a feeling that there was no possibility for democratic competition as nominee was already chosen. But we wanted only to show our faith. When our nominee had no fortune of getting voices of the parliament, our decision was quite expected.
The Federation Popular Forces is preparing for holding the second conference. The Federation will be the first party which will hold a conference after the Presidential Elections. The Federation was also the first political party which held a conference after the War of 1994. Al-Shora Newspaper is the first newspaper which continued editorial policy that existed before the War. The conference faced a lot of crucial problems, but it overcame all those. When, Mr. Ibrahim Bin Ali Al-Wazeer was elected as the security-general of the Federation. Al-Shora Newspaper was stopped for a year. Up to now, we have faced many problems. We wish to conclude the forthcoming conference successfully without any interference from any source.

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