Parliament's human rights and general freedom and constitutional and legal affairs committees are still studying elections law draft and the amendments raised by the government; while Joint Meeting Parties warn against forming the committee outside the mechanisms agreed upon and signed in Aden earlier between the ruling party – the General People Congress – and the opposition parties represented by the Joint Meeting Parties, considering any solitary act by any party to be outside the law.

The opposition conditions the implementation of the early agreements as a base for conducting free and impartial elections, expressing their rejection for any act outside the guarantees and effective agreements.

This move by the opposition parties came after the ruling party called on Parliament to act responsibly and take a decisive resolution as to the formation of the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum, after the former commission's constitutional period had come to an end.

Head of the ruling party's media department Tariq Al-Shami told Yemen Post that his party submitted proposals to Parliament aiming to reform the elections commission and noted they are for forming a commission including all parties registered in Parties' Affairs Committee.

Al-Shami pointed the committee is formed according to the agreement of principles signed by Joint Meeting Parties and the General People Congress and sponsored by the international organizations, hinting the agreement was built on two parts: the first part stipulated that two members should be added to the former committee along with forming a legal team for that end.

The second was based upon a demand by the Joint Meeting Parties and conditions that the elections commission should be formed from judiciary, wherein the parties represented in the Parliament submitted a proposal aiming to amend the article no. 19 in a way that expand the elections commission to nine members instead of seven and to be selected from among the 15 judges selected earlier by the Parliament.

Meanwhile, the government presented a proposal to the Parliament to amend the same article demanding that the elections commission should have seven members selected from among 21 judges appointed by the Supreme Judiciary Council.

The article no. 21 of the new elections law stipulates that Parliament chooses 14 judges from among the 21 selected by the judiciary council. The 14 judges are referred to the President to select just seven members and later a republican decree is issued naming them as the members of the elections commission.

Informed sources told Yemen Post that committees in charge of studying the project will end their task by this week and later the Parliament will decide upon the matter and resolve the existing problem.

Without doubt, the ruling party – representing the majority – will have the matter in his side unless opposition parties exert a powerful pressure to prevent that.

Head of the Yemeni Socialist Party bloc at Parliament Aidrous Al-Naqip assured the proposal was presented by the Parliament's presidency and it aims to blackmail the opposition MPs, maintaining the presidency tries to put them before two options: either to elect a new committee outside any former agreements between the opposition and ruling party or to prolong the period of the existing committee described by him as the worst in Yemen's history.

Realizing the ruling party will pass any decision through its major bloc at the Parliament, the Joint Meeting Parties exerts noticeable efforts to delay the formation of the committee until President Saleh interferes to resolve the pending problem.

The current crisis reflects the early political conflict which might be seen during 2009 parliamentary elections and the opposition still has a lot of demands as to the electoral systems and its administration.

Observers believe the forthcoming electoral situation necessitates the existence of free and impartial commission, without looking at the condition of equality between parties concerning the commission's members.

However, they stress that a commission will embody dictatorship in case it is formed from one political party; wherein the law is not implemented due to the forgiveness of the commission belonging to a certain party and thus prevents the peaceful transfer of power.  

In a recent development, Joint Meeting Parties issued a statement in which the ruling party was held accountable for irresponsible and solitary acts that violate constitution and effective laws. The statement accused the ruling party of trying to form one-sided election commission.

Head of Islah Party's Media Department Mohammed Qahtan noted the agreement of principles stipulates that both the Joint Meeting Parties and the General People Congress should approve a mechanism for selecting the judges as well as the criteria for naming the commission's members.

In return, head of the General People Congress' Media Department Tariq Al-Shami stressed that Joint Meeting Parties have not presented any logical excuse as to forming the commission from judges and hinted they rejected the raised alternatives.

Al-Shami asserted they are trying to hinder the parliamentarian elections due to be conducted by January 2009 and to heckle the work of the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum. He also expressed his party's readiness to have a dialogue over forming the list of 22 judges due to be presented by the Supreme Judicial Council to the Parliament.

In his statement of Al-Sahwa.net, the Director of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) Peter Dimitroff stressed the importance that the elections commission should be free and impartial as well as technically efficient.

Dimitroff further emphasized that all parties should be partners in the electoral process and highlighted all issues in need for amendments earlier to 2009 parliamentary elections.