The Yemen Polling Center (YPC) will host a discussion of the findings of a survey it recently conducted regarding electoral rights and the reform process on Wednesday and Thursday, the 15-16 December, 2010. The survey, implemented in July 2010 and organized as part of YPC’s Yemen Parliament Watch project, will be presented to political party members and Members of Parliament, civil society organizations, and various media outlets. The Yemen Parliament Watch (ypwatch.org) project is funded through the European Union’s European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) program.

The discussion will focus on the results of the recently completed survey on electoral rights and the reform process, and will compare its findings with different views to reform the electoral system suggested by different political parties.

In general, the Yemen Parliament Watch-project aims to increase public knowledge about the role and work of the Parliament as well as the level of confidence in the institution. Moreover, it addresses MPs, journalists and civil society activists in an endeavor to link this institution with media and civil society. The project includes a series of opinion surveys on aspects pertaining to women’s political rights and participation, electoral rights and reforms and the right to freedom of expression and the freedom of the press. It also includes several training workshops for selected MPs, civil society organizations and journalists of various media outlets.