By: almotamar.net - SANA'A - Wa'i for Development and Democratic Studies, a Yemeni NGO interested in democracy, has stated that the presidential and local council elections of Sept 20, is a milestone in Yemen's political and democratic transformation as it is marked by competition among the political system parties.
The first report of Wa'i on the 2006 presidential and local council elections in Yemen, says the elections has got more competition among the parties involved than in previous election processes.
Wa'i, which also contributed to the supervision over the 2006 elections by providing 7880 supervisors all around the country, said the principle agreement signed by the political parties is one of the elements that have ensured good and free elections. However, Wa'i has seen that some parties which signed the agreement continued to exchange accusations in their media and political discourse that other parties did not comply with the agreement.
Wa'i said that the agreement added that the decision of the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referundum to suspend the single constituency system deprived many electors from casting their votes because of their presence outside their constituencies on the election day.
During the election campaign, the observers of Wa'i saw an increase in the dependency on cassettes as publicity means in contradiction to previous elections during which only Islah party produced cassettes. However, cassettes production was blemished with violations and the SCER had to take action against violators such as the cassette of Al-Qarni.
The report indicated that political parties did not conform to the non-use of loudspeakers during the election campaign.
Nevertheless, the report underplays the violations by candidates and political parties. "Such violations do not constitute a failure during this stage," giving the impression that these violations are simple and that certain confrontations occurring during the elections were between individuals rather than political confrontations between parties.
The report shows that the balloting process went well generally around the country and was quiet despite trivial violations which were duly addressed by the election and security committees.