Yemen has been in a political crisis since August last year. The opposition and ruling party are in a dispute over the parliamentary elections which are scheduled to be held on April 27th, 2009.  A boycott by the opposition has been threatening the country's 19-year old democracy.

The opposition alliance which includes the Islamists, Socialists, and Nasserites, seem to be preparing themselves to go to the streets instead of going to the polls.

They insist to keep refusing what they call "illegal administration of elections" which will result, consequently, in an "illegal government". They also refused the elections' committee which was voted for by the majority of the ruling party in parliament on August 18th.  This committee, which has been doing its job ever since, in preparations for the elections in April has been boycotted by them. 

The ruling party, along with a   number of small but loyal parties, appears to be determined to go to the polls alone to rescue the country from what they call the "constitutional vacuum" that may hit the nation if elections are not held on time.

The closer the vote day gets the worse the situation and the less solutions and options they have.

Time is too short now for any more dialogue over reforming the elections system after failures of dialogues and meetings over the last period to reach an agreement on having a good system which guarantees free and fair elections.

International organizations, like IFES, and NDI, and the American and European Union missions in Yemen, repeatedly urged the two sides to reach an agreement or a compromise for conducting reasonably free and fair elections.

These organizations, which are the main financers, refuse conducting the elections without the participation of the main opposition parties.

A compromise seems to be the only thing that can avoid a possible violent conflict between the two sides if they meet in the street instead of meeting in the polls. If the opposition and its supporters take to the streets, the ruling party and its supporters will not stand watching as its officials always say. Given the timer left, some observers say the two sides are now in an either-or-situation: a compromise or conflicts. And a compromise is not easy to reach given the destroyed confidence between the two sides after all previous failures and deadlocks. 

"Building the confidence is the responsibility of the side that has the power, and a genuine desire from both sides for reaching a compromise will be the only way to avoid conflict," said Mohammed Abdul Malik Al Mutwakel, a professor of politics at Sana'a University.

The two sides have been exchanging accusations on each other for repeated failures of dialogues between them.   The opposition says the ruling party wants to keep in power through forged elections. 

The ruling party, General People Congress (GPC), often blames the opposition alliance, known as the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), for not reaching an agreement or compromise. It says their own differences, especially those between the Socialists and Islamists, make it more difficult to find solutions acceptable by all.

The GPC officials argue that the Islamists cannot boycott elections given their big popularity and their nearly 40 seats in parliament, but the Socialists wish to boycott because they do not have that popularity and have only 7 seats. 

One more thing over which the Islamists disagree with the Socialists is the participation of women as voters and candidates. The Islamists still bans women from participating as candidates, and this issue is still seen by some senior official inside the party as religiously impermissible.

The (GPC) and its leader, President Saleh, have maneuvering that the women should have 15 per cent of the seats, which means about 45 seats of the 301-Seats House.

In these circumstances, the JMP have started a nation-wide process of consultations with the aim of raising public awareness for refusing such elections and its results.

They call this process the "Consultations in the road of national dialogue" and launched it in Sana'a two weeks ago.   

"The process of consultations and dialogue is a strategic process not a tactical, because there is a real crisis which is a crisis of a nation and not a crisis of JMPs and GPC," said Hamid Al-Ahmar, chairman of the supreme committee of consultations.

However, ruling party officials keep   denying any crisis. President Ali Abdullah Saleh, accused the JMPs of trying to spread the culture of hatred, and fabricating a crisis while "they are only looking for leaderships".   He confirmed that the parliamentary elections will be held on time.