Yemen Observer: http://www.yobserver.com
Posted in:
Local News
Written By: Zaid al-Alaya’a
Article Date: May 13, 2008 - 3:03:28 AM
The Ministry of Local Administration will appoint four women as province directors of the Local Council Authority in the governorates of Sana’a, Ibb, Houdeidah and Taiz in a first step toward the application of this experience throughout Yemen, said Abdul-Qader Hilal, Minister of Local Administration.
The nominations were the result of a round table organized by the Sister Arab Forum for Human Rights in Sana’a last Sunday in an attempt to enable and qualify women for future governor posts.
Hilal alluded to the weak role played by Yemeni political forces in creating awareness and a decentralized culture that could replace the current centralized governance which has cost the country a lot of time. Yemen’s initiative to discuss the role of women in local development is a motive for generating a public opinion that is capable of eliminating centralization, according to Hilal.
The fact that many enthusiastic women ran for the position of governor, though withdrawn later, is a tremendous step to break all doubt, said Hilal, indicating the importance of cooperative powers and efforts to create a public opinion on upcoming constitutional amendments.
“The amendments are to enhance the steps to move toward a local governance with wider powers.” Hilal extolled the women who were involved in the governor elections and those women who presented themselves in local council elections in the past two rounds with good scores, acknowledging their abilities to run executive offices.
Hilal described the governor elections as a response to the popular and political ambitions that will bridge the gap of development, while criticizing the negative attitudes against the movement. He confirmed that many of the local council members from the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) who announced their boycotting of the elections participated in nominating several candidates.
“As a result of a strategic plan to avail success factors, such as re-ordering the working cadre of centrality, the local governance did not gain its required right.” Moreover, this cadre needs training, besides the infrastructure and the committee that is in charge of decentralization only met once, said Hilal. Evaluating Yemen’s experience of the local council elections’ past two rounds resulted in recommendations relating to legal, constitutional and technical amendments, tackling central deficit to help solve financial law. Hilal said the first step is to give citizens the right to choose their governor.
“Governor elections are a quantum leap in Yemen, and although it is not everything, it will be followed by other steps. The most important step will be to give more power to elected governors,” said Hilal. Additional powers that will be given to elected governors will enable them to address their governorate issues, especially in improving public services. They will be able to listen to the needs and complaints of citizens to provide quick solutions.
The success of the governor elections can be attributed to many factors, beginning from political will to the granting of extra powers and tasks to governors, in addition to public support that ends with local council members working independently. This unit has to free from any social pressures and must be concerned only with public services. Hilal talked about the agenda, concerns and problems that current candidates in some governorates carry. These concerns and problems are adherent with people, and what they need is different from one governorate to another.
Another step that will follow the governor elections will be to reconsider role of the Ministry of Local Administration and to draw policies and add a developmental dimension to it, calling for national agreement and consent on the strategy of local governance.
Head of the Sister Arab Forum for Human Rights, Amal Basha, said that the forum has been working on the issue of elections, especially concerning role of woman in local elections, for five years now. The forum has worked to bridge the legal gaps in local governance, too. Basha said that there will be no real and actual democracy until women are able to actively participate in politics and become an independent force
The round table talked about the steps that the local authority in Yemen has gone through, first with the constitution after the unification in 1990, passing through many hinders and long discussions until a local authority law was issued in 2001.