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| Arabia |
| Yemeni Parliament rejects changes to electoral law |
| 2008-08-19 |
| Yemen's Parliament on Monday rejected a bill of controversial amendments to the election law, underscoring escalating tension between the ruling party and the opposition. President Ali Abdullah Saleh's ruling General People's Congress (GPC), which dominates Parliament, pushed through the vote after the socialist opposition failed to name representatives to an election committee for April 2009 polls. The Parliament instead kept the old committee in place, adding three new members, an AFP correspondent reported. The rejected amendments include banning government officials from using their influence to affect the vote, and confining the registration of electors to their place of birth or residence while ruling out the place of work. "What the Parliament has done today was constitutional. The procrastination of the opposition and its failure to fulfill its promises is against the constitution," GPC parliamentary bloc chief Sultan al-Burkani said. "The opposition parties want us to subjugate laws and the Parliament to their wishes, and even want to postpone elections for another year. This is unacceptable," he charged. The amendments were hammered out during months of talks between major political parties. Like in a stormy session on Sunday, the main opposition Yemen Socialist Party (YSP) stayed away, although two other opposition groups, the Islamist Islah Party and Unionist Popular Nasserite Organization, attended the debate. |
| Posted by:Fred |