By:almotamar.net - SANA'A, (Almotamar.net) - The propaganda campaign for presidential and local council elections began today allover the governorates.
Five candidates are vying for presidency. These are: Ali Abdullah Saleh, General People's Congress (GPC)'s candidate; Ahmed al-Majeedi, an independent candidate, and member of Yemen Socialist Party; Faisal Bin Shamlan, Joint Meeting Parties (JMP)'s candidate; Yasin Abdu Saeed, representative of 13 opposition parties; and Fathi al-Azab, an independent candidate and a prominent Islahi leader.

At the level of local council elections, there are more than 19,000 candidates, of whom 164 are women.
What Yemen is witnessing is unprecedented phenomenon in the region's history. The Yemeni people are really now practicing democracy, a dream most world countries live on.
In a moment's thought, one can find that what is happening today in this country is not the same style found in some countries to bring out what is beautiful and hide what is awful. Yemen, rather, practices what it has selected, i.e., democracy which President Saleh has stressed on, and which he established on a strong base that can never get defeated.

Addly Early says Ali Abdullah Saleh is a personality that deserves to be praised as he made a brave decision to embark on democracy in his country. But Saleh cares only for his people's testimony. He is satisfied with freedom of press, which he started until he has become a target for its criticism.

According to some of his relatives, Saleh sleeps comfortably, and whenever he hears a strong opinion or reads a sound criticism published on a Yemeni newspaper, he says," We shouldn't make it difficult for the counter opinion. Instead, we should find out the reason of defects to amend them."

President Saleh has been adherent to the democracy principles as a reversible choice.
Whatever the consequences would be, Saleh says, "Treating the faults of democracy can only be achieved by more democracy."

In 1999, Yemen saw the first presidential elections, but other parties remained anxious as the presidential post has been surrounded by worries and horrors for many countries. At that time, Najeeb Qahtan al-Sha'bi ran for presidency elections, competing only with Ali Abdullah Saleh.

But today we are facing a more matured experience: the biggest opposition parties are vying for presidential election, competing with only Ali Abdullah Saleh, GPC candidate. Indeed, it is a strong competition.

Trying to compete with the enormous popularity of the GPC candidate, the JMP has launched its election publicity with a sum of 15 billion riyals, equivalent to 75 million dollars. Such a huge amount of money is the outcome of foreign donations, in addition to donations from Islahi companies.
According to some information, Sabafon telephony Co., which belongs to Islah, has donated 10 billion riyals, the Islamic Bank of Saba 3.5 billion riyals, and other foreign donations comprised 1.5 billion riyals.

Large amounts of such donations have been allocated for the election publicity, whereby the JMP shall buy advertisement space in some satellite channels.

As the GPC seeks to present a distinctive democratic experience, it faces opponents that look at the results only. Differences also renew as the opposition parties have not stick to the election law by using mosques for their interests.