Jamil al-Jadabi(almotamar.net) - SANA'A- European Union Election Observation Mission to Yemen said the September elections were a milestone in political development, and marked by the participation of all political parties and the freedom given to all candidates.
The Yemeni elections succeeded in giving the chance to an open, competitive political battle that broke new ground in the political development.
In its final report on the September elections, the EU mission stated it is for the first time in Yemen and the region that a president faced a real challenge in the elections.
The EU mission further noted that despite the geographical and security difficulties, the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum (SCER) could run the elections adequately. The mission, however, criticized the lack of credibility of announcing the election results, and using public resources unequally, as well as the exclusion of women from the electoral process.
The EU observers made it clear that the election campaigns were active and generally good, with a strong public turnout, criticizing the dominance of the presidential elections over the local council elections, the low extent of tolerance during the election campaigns due to the hostile political address.
The report, of which almotamar.net obtained a copy, stated media outlets could carry out an extensive, positive coverage on during the election campaigns, in addition to educating electors. It also praised official media as it gave equal space to broadcast the presidential candidates' campaigns equally. But covering the activities of president Saleh and the government's members was clear bias, the report added.
According to the report, no case of aggression against journalists was reported during the election campaigns; nor there were any reports on the interference of the authorities in the electoral campaigns.
The report further criticized some policemen and military officials who posted the photos of the General People's Congress candidate, expressing regret as no senior officers didn't issue instructions for soldiers to support any candidate.
The report pointed out that the GPC didn't stick to the 15 percent of seats allocated for women, while the Islah Party adopted a negative stance towards women as candidates. The Yemeni Socialist Party was the only one that gave additional support to women candidates. The report presented a number of recommendations to improve the coming electoral process.