The Yemeni Parliamentary Elections 2003: A Critical Analysis
by Ahmed Abdelkareem Saif[1]
Publisher: Gulf Research Centre, Series of Yemen Studies, Issue 2, 2004.
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Political Sphere
The short span since the establishment of the Yemeni Parliament in 1990 does not permit extensive institutionalisation and consolidation; nonetheless, Yemen has had three consecutive parliamentary elections in 1993, 1997 and 2003. During the respective elected councils the Parliament has functioned in an unstable political environment. Political life has been characterised by a struggle for power, swinging from co-operation to a large-scale war. Depending on the level of tension between different parties, power distribution, and the impact on the Parliament, Yemeni parliament swings from semi efficient and relatively autonomous to an ineffective.
During the first parliament that followed the unification in 1990 the balance of power between rivals provided the Parliament with reasonable room to manoeuvre, and the two ruling parties the General Peoples’ Congress (GPC) and the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) tried to reach a compromise over many issues. In the process, they delegated considerable authority to the Parliament and 58.4 per cent of the MPs believe that it had high autonomy and 20.8 per cent say it had reasonable degree of autonomy. The Parliament, therefore, emerged as a powerful institution to the extent that it was prepared to withdraw confidence from the government in 1991 for raising diesel prices, whereupon the government retreated.[2]
[1] Director, Saba Centre for Studies and Research, Assistant Professor at YCMES and Sana’a University.
[2] Interview with Yasin Sa'id Numa'n, Speaker of the Parliament 1990-83 (former Prime Minister of the PDRY 1986-90), Abu Dhabi, 12 December 1998.
