Yemen 21 Forum and Okaz Newspaper hold a Discussion Session titled: “Relations among Political Parties and the Presidential Elections: Present and Future” [Archives:1999/38/Law & Diplomacy]

Organized by the Yemen 21st Forum as well as by the Saudi-based Okaz Newspaper represented by its correspondent in Yemen Mr. Hafiz Al-Bukari, a seminar on “the Past and Present Relationship between the Political Powers in the Light of the Upcoming Presidential Elections” was held on Saturday Sept.18. It was chaired by the Editor-in-Chief of the Yemen Times, Walid Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf and attended by a number of intellectuals, journalists as well as politicians.
The first speaker in this gathering was Nassr Taha Mostafa, a well known journalists, who said “the presidential elections lack the essence of democracy which is the strong competition. The elections are going to be between two candidates who belong to the same party. Despite what the component of the President boosts to possess -and he has right to say so- a different platform, we find that our presidential elections suffer from the non-existence of competition in its correct and well known sense.
In reference to the participating and not participating sides in elections, I believe that there is not a dispute over this at all. For it is clear that the participating parties are urging its people to participate. However, the non-participating parties try their best to gain the public sympathy so as not to participate.
Gar Allah Omar, chairman of the political department of the YSP, said the following: “The opposition did not take the decision not to participate, however, the decision was taken by the ruling power. Therefore, the opposition deems the presidential elections were practically over on July 21,1999. The opposition is not obliged to make a big fuss or dispute over the size of participating or not and that the negative attitude, in this regard may be the better choice for there will be only one player in the field. The opposition do not want to be the side that creates disputes in the international community. Our role is that we declared our hopes that the people will not participate in these elections. What the administrative authority is doing is that it compels people to attend such ceremonies and festivals for every districts’ manager is obliged to bring people from villages otherwise his position is in danger. Even the arranging of these festivals are done by the governors and their supervisors. Therefore, the partisan process is not at all existing. Even the role of the BGC is not at all there. On the other hand, the Islah Party is satisfied with a minor presence and the authority is planning everything out. So our absence helps to a great extent in revealing things in their real colors, that there is an administrative and military power that is handling this process and that there is not any partisan system that could be mentioned.
The opposition parties sees that after all this it is a foregone conclusion the current President Ali Abdullah is going to be the President. So everything has been settled down. The current legitimacy is the legitimacy that came after war 1994 and its results. So whatever exists now is just a continuation of this legitimacy and we do not want to get involved in clashes with this power. We, as a result, declared that the presidential elections are over and that we are prevented from participation and we wish that the people will not participate. However, we are fully aware that the people are subjected to threats, many are threatened to stop their salaries. Even in Taiz’s festival we find that allowances as well as salaries of teachers will be paid after the festival. This is not a voting, however, it will reflect a rosy picture during this time and may be later translated in terms of number on papers.
Mr. Abdullah Al-Maktari, a member of parliament, said “If we try to relate the title of the seminar to the parliament we will find that for any practice there must be some kind of relation to the institution. We have also to look at this from two angles in regard to this legitimacy. The theoretical side is related to the constitutional relevance and the other side is that who explains this legitimacy. Then the executive side carries out the theoretical side. The constitutional side, in fact, does not give the right to participating in the presidential elections only to the political parties. However, it is the right of every Yemeni who meets some conditions to be a candidate as well as to elect. Therefore, the constitute indicates this in a general sense and does not indicate that presidential elections should be held in a partisan categories. However, what we have right now are elections based upon partisan categories. Article number “106” of the constitution points out these conditions and gives each person the right to be a candidate as well as to elect. Even in the confidence which was held in the parliament it was made under partisan categories which are groundless in reference to our constitution. Moreover, article number 107 “a” necessitates that elections are competitive which does not at all exist here. This is if we are applying the spirit of the constitution. On the other hand, if we talk of procedures which were made, we find that they were not based upon the law and the constitution for the constitution states in article “107” certain procedures, which are not at all applied in these elections. First of all, the confidence procedures were arranged in a way that it was an outrageous violation of all the electoral norms that are generally known all over the world. Every member of the parliament was given a card in which he had to write the person he chose and under that he had to write his name and signature. So “what does this mean? It means that this is just a security procedure that was done to make sure that no votes will go to other candidates that are not approved of by the ruling power. This goes to prove that the is not the confidence in members of parliaments.
Mr. Mohammed Jassar, editor in chief of “Ra’ay Newspaper”, said the following: “Considering the political parties existing in the arena, we find that there are three dominant sides : The BGC, those fill in the line such as the Islah Party, the National Opposition Council. Then, the Supreme Coordination Council of the Opposition and finally, The Sons of Yemen League. The nominee of the BGC’s is obvious. The Islah Party and the National Opposition Council have actually examined the political situation very carefully and accurately. As a result, they discovered that the situation is not at all appropriate for a fair and just competitive elections in the country. However, their attitude was very much negative for the democratic process in the country as they took their opponent side. On the other hand, Supreme Coordination Council of the Opposition made a mistake when they based their hopes upon a baseless promise. The third attitude is the attitude of the Sons of Yemen League who tried its best to join the Yemeni opposition powers on the basis that the political situation is not at convenient to hold elections, however, it failed.
The ruling party considers itself the foster father of all the other parties existing in the arena. So whatever exists in the society is a property of the ruling party and its leaders. The environment is not also appropriate for all including, the ruling party, opposition inside as well as outside, even those in charge of it admit that the voters lists are full of faults and defects. Moreover, some have declared that they are forged. So when we find that it was almost difficult to gather the opposition sides into one force, we decided that we would not participate in these elections. We leave the option to the people either to participate or not.
Dr. Fares Al-Saqqaf said we were having fancy hopes in having real presidential elections. However, the number of approving members is actually very exaggerated. In regards to non-confidence of the opposition’s nominee, we find that this has given a clear picture and a thorough analysis of the political process in reference to the political power in Yemen. The evidence is that both the existing nominees for the elections do even criticize each other’s wrong deeds. They are rather talking about the opposition which goes all-out to prove that the opposition is there. They speak about it forgetting that they have the National Opposition Council on their side. The opposition attitude to keep aloof is, in my viewpoint, the right thing for the ruling party is doing what the opposition is supposed to do by its wrong decisions. For example, the choosing of Najeeb Al-Shaabi to be a competitor of the President and not giving the rest of the candidates the confidence which if given to any other nominee, the ruling party would have saved himself the trouble. Then, by talking about the opposition in that way in front of the people, this gives the feeling that they are oppressed and that they are still resisting and struggling. The festivals, bringing children and employees out to streets, holding teachers’ salaries and allowances until the end of festivals, all these are proofs to the flagrant wrong deeds done by the ruling party. The opposition has a nice chance that they should not let it go. The opposition should join hands and come together to be one force.
Mohammed Yahya Shonaif said “he who says that the competition is not there, he himself has no existence in the political arena. There are two nominees for the presidential elections and each one of them is a candidate of a specific section of the existing parties. Ali Abdullah Saleh, for example, is the candidate of the BGC and Islah, while Najeeb Qahtan Al-Shaabi is the candidate of the National Opposition Council. Each one of them has his own platform which gives a clear picture of each one’s prospective view of different issues in our society. The media is also playing its role in publishing all that is related to these two candidates. And he who says that the elections are not based upon the constitution, he himself did not verify the constitution which states that the elections should be direct, competitive as well as free.
In a general sense we find that the opposition did not decide not to participate for the Islah Party as well as the National Opposition Council has declared that the President, Ali is its nominee. Only four parties out off twenty five parties declared not to participate and this does not at all affect the electoral process nor it affects the voters whose numbers reach to five and a half million.
The political powers’ relations in the future will be better than they are now for the presidential elections will point out those who are supporting the unity of the country and those who are not. The relations between Islah and BGC are the same as the relation between the BGC and the National Opposition Council.
I also want to assert that the upcoming President is going to come through the voting polls and not through the conspiracy or through coup d’tat. Therefore, elections are one of the pillars the BGC has called for so as to build the modern Yemen.
The discussion was further elaborated to include Sultan Hizam who said “the presidential elections have lost their spirit and what remains now is just some procedures that will be carried out. Furthermore, article number 13 states that the confidence should be given in a secretive way. Even those who applied to be candidates for the Presidency, we find that we had no ideas about them.”
Mr. Nassr Taha Mostafa said that the Islah’s attitude in electing Ali Abdullah Saleh is something normal, for there is not any constitutional article that prohibits this. Islah has found that competing with the President especially in these times is not proper. They found that there were some priorities for the country as well as for the party. The Islah decision to nominee the Ali Saleh for the presidential elections is not a hostile attitude against the Coordination Opposition Council. Islah has his prospective view and it is his right to choose and nominate whoever they like.
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