Governors election postponed to May 17

The Ministry of Local Administration approved the final schedule program for the governors elections across Yemen and decided for May 17 to be the election day.

According the schedule program, all members of the local councils of the governorates and districts will be called upon by the President of the Republic on April 27 to elect the governors on May 17.

This step came after amending the local authorities law to allow electing the governors for the first time in Yemen instead of being appointed.

In its latest meeting, the leaders of the Ministry of Local Administration, headed by Minister Abdul Qadir Ali Helal, approved the logo of the governors elections and decided to benefit from the experience of the Supreme Elections and Referendums Commission  to conduct the governors’ elections. They also decided to generalize the law number 18 for the year 2008 that included amending some articles of the local administration law to legalize the elections of the governors of the Yemeni provinces and the mayor of the capital.

They decided to apply the republican decree number 86 for the year 2008 that included by law the organizing procedures for electing governors and decided to publish these two decrees and all procedures by the local media to aware the public about the elections procedures. 

Meanwhile, the Supreme Judiciary Council has appointed 20 special judiciary committees. Each committee consists of three judges to receive and deal with the rejections and challenges that might be presented by the candidates concerning the elections procedures or complains about any possible fraud. 

A source from the high elections committee at the Ministry of Local Authorities announced that the committee has started the preparations and documents required for conducting the elections as well as forming and training the elections committees.

It is also expected that the committee will receive the candidates applications and files starting from Saturday, May 3.

The candidates will be elected by the members of the local councils of the governorates and of the districts of each governorate. All members of the local councils across the country are amounted at 7681. While the members of the local councils of the governorates are 425 members in addition to 21 heads of the local councils of the governorates. 

It had been decided to run the governors’ elections on April 27 but this date was postponed to give more time for the preparation and registration process of the elections. Instead of running the elections on April 27 it is decided that the President would issue a republican decree on April 27 to call on the voters to nominate the candidates and to cast their voices for electing the governors and the mayor of the capital on May 17. 

April 27 is considered as the democracy day in Yemen as the first parliamentary elections in Yemen were run on April 27, 1993. 

Opposition parties of the GMP have announced plans to boycott the elections, however they intend to nominate their candidates as independents.  

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