Yemen for all [Archives:2006/941/Viewpoint]

The Heating debate on the legitimacy of the Supreme Elections Committee (SEC) has been looping endlessly. While Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) continue deem it biased in favor of the ruling General People's Congress (GPC), the regime, according to the opposition, has done very little to validate its neutrality and legitimacy except instructing members of the armed forces including the police academy to obtain their voting cards with no fail in order to allow the students to pursue their studies in the academy.

Additionally, some local websites published results of a statistical study indicatingb that the number of registered people to vote in the upcoming elections is double the adult population in remote governance such as Al-Mahara and Mareb in accordance with the latest consensus. This in addition to tons of violations on the part of the SEC, which were reported by civilians to the offices of the JMP, which results in escalating tensions between the GPC and the JMP around the upcoming elections. All this put the JMP in a helpless and nervous situation, to the extent that JMP are considering nominating President Saleh along with the GPC on the condition that more power is decentralized and more authority is delegated to the parliament, with aspirations to the 2013 elections.

Those are hard times for the democratic process in Yemen. The GPC seems to be not ready to loosen its grip on power regardless of what the president may say or the JMP may demand. Thus it is expected that the GPC will continue with its elections blueprint accompanied with an intensive Public Relations campaign attacking the creditability of the JMP focusing on their newborn entity, internal disputes and their unclear political stance.

Yemen can't afford more political instability; internal tensions do not only tax Yemen's own developmental process but also our relationship with our neighbors and the international community. So will the GPC favor the bigger good, and in turn loosen its grip on power towards 2013 if it is unwilling to do so this year?
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