With eyes wide open, eyebrows raised high, Tawakkul Karman, the chairwoman of Women Journalists without Chains, said “With two civil wars, an Al-Qaeda presence and 40 percent unemployment, what else is President Saleh waiting for? He should leave office.”
President Saleh said as of now his party would go alone in the polls if the Joint Meeting Parties boycott the elections on April 27 of next year.
Unfortunately, government corruption has only increased over the last two decades through which the GPC has faced a variety of corruption charges. Saleh hasn’t fulfilled 15% of the commitments he made at the beginning of his recent term in office.
During the past few months, negotiations between the General People’s Congress GPC and the Joint Meeting Parties JMP would routinely reach similar results. However, the ruling party, the GPC, discloses information to friendly media to attack the JMP, accusing them of being unfaithful.
Regional analysts said that the ruling party would lose its reputation before the international community once it went alone to the election. “It may also lead to stopping support as well as losing the constitutional legitimacy and national consensus,” they said, adding “It will also cause the country to plunge into a state of political and economic unrest.” “Another move of electing officials’ sons will take place and this will result in a weaker parliament and will also help the one-side opinion to flourish,” they concluded.
“Once the ruling party goes for elections alone, it will run many more candidates than the 301 seats to avoid upsetting loyal clans in areas where more than one family wanted the GPC seat,” said senior member of the GPC, Sheikh Jabri Al-Azab.
Yemeni observers believe that the elections will be delayed to 2013 as the parliament has already removed this topic from its current schedule, and said it meant that the elections would be postponed. “President Saleh would benefit from postponing the elections as it means an extension of his time in power,” said Mohamed Al-Sabri, spokesman of the dialogue committee on behalf of the opposition Nasserite party.
The GPC, which has been in power since its foundation in 1982, is widely seen as a loose political body, lacking in unity and ideological cohesion, which Yemenis join not out of support for its policies or ideological affiliation but because they want to enjoy the benefits that come from being close to the ruling elite.
“The GPC is capable of attracting thousands of members who join it for self-seeking interests or political immunity,” said lawyer and director of HOOD Human Rights Organization, Mohammed Naji Allaw. “Instead of educating them politically and teaching them about the values of civil state, the GPC left its members in a state of chaos and self-contradiction,” he added.
JMP did not do better in 2003
In the elections of 2003, the GPC took over parliament with 238 of 301 seats, and it managed over the last local elections to get the overwhelming majority of seats in all provinces and districts.
To help in changing the situation, opposition parties are demanding that government starts using the proportional representation (PR) system in elections. According to an election expert, it is a type of electoral system once used in Yemen that would help small parties that have no chance to win in the elections to get hold of more seats in parliament.
Civil war, Al-Qaeda, and unemployment
The southern secessionist movement grew increasingly aggressive in its efforts to raise issues of southern politics, economy, and social marginalization since unification. In the north, Houthi Zaidis had waged an intermittent insurrection against the government since 2004 and again drew Saleh’s attention when a new round of fighting began in January 2008.
Al-Qaeda also became increasingly active, attacking tourists and western interests in the country. With threats on all sides, the regime moved to curtail political freedoms and civil liberties and began relying heavily on tribes and patronage to hold the country together, fueling growing resentment among Yemeni citizens.