By: Jamil al-Jadabi - MARIB- Armed members of the Islah party (Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen) impose a strict siege on the officials of the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum (SCER) in the eastern governorate of Marib.

Head of the SCER office in Marib, Abdullah al-Ameer, told almotamar.net that the SCER members were surprised to see some 200 armed men heading towards the SCER premises. "They have been blockading us since 8 am," he added. The SCER members still are unable to distribute the polling boxes among the election centers.
Al-Ameer attributed the reasons behind the blockade to simple differences regarding replacing a member of a sub-committee with another one. Such reasons are merely a pretext to deter the tasks of the SCER, he noted. Tribal mediation efforts have begun to end the blockade. Local sources accuse the Joint Meeting Parties of being behind the incident in an effort to thwart the voting process in the district for fear of defeat in the elections.