Almotamar.net - Director of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Yemen Peter Dimitrov said Wednesday," There is a big interest by the international community in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Yemen."

Dimitrov added he international community expects the upcoming parliamentary elections would be more advanced and distinguished than previous ones, affirming ," our partners in election observation would play an effective role in developing the electoral system." He confirmed the importance of a political agreement on forming the supreme commission for elections and referendum as soon as possible and that would correct and mad overcome the technical and management hindrances that dace electoral processes especially that the present election law stipulates that there must be a process of revising and correcting electorate register at a time not exceeding October 2008.

A press release obtained by almotamar.net mentioned that the NDI signed on Wednesday a memorandum of understanding with a number of local non-governmental organisations for formation of a new local observation network, namely , Al-Aman Society for Blind Female Care, Arab Sisters Forum for Human Rights , Al-Mustaqbal Society for Social Development and Peace , Peace and Development Society , Al-Ikhaa Society for Social Development and Peace , The National Organisation for Social Development and the New Generation Society.

On her part Ms Rabab al-Midhwahi senior director of elections programmes at the NDI affirmed that the programme for supporting elections for developing and enhancing capacities of the above mentioned organisations would focus on formation of the new local observation network. The programme will be divided into two stages, in the first stage there will be a focus on enlightening voters on challenging electors tables and monitoring registration while the second stage will focus on holding awareness campaigns on the importance of going to voting and observation of the parliamentary elections.

Al-Midhwahi added that the NDI would directly cooperate with the supreme commission for elections and referendum, the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), the UN Development Programme and the European Union for coordination in all programmes and electoral support.