May 17 Washington Post op-ed piece by Ali H. Soufan entitled, "Coddling Terrorists" decried how Yemen has let free some of al-Qaida terrorists responsible for the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole warship in the Yemeni port of Aden. In his article, Soufan (who played a key role in the FBI investigation of the ... >> More
Yemen holds first governor elections Sana’a, May 17, 2008 (YemenOnline) - Yemen will elect a mayor on Saturday for the capital of Sana’a and governors for the 20 other governorates from 36 contenders.
7,481 elected local council members from the 2006 elections will cast their votes in the governor elections.
Official media reported that about 330 local, Arab and international observers will monitor Yemen’s first ever governor elections.
In a statement, the opposition Joint Meeting Party (JMP) reiterated its rejection and boycott for electing governors and depicted elections as a “play”.
Previously, JMP criticized the election as undemocratic and said their party would boycott the planned election because it contradicts the principle of free and direct elections.
The opposition dubbed the proposed elections of governors as a mockery and called for the governors to be elected by the public rather than local councils.
According to JMP, the domination of ruling General People’s Congress (GPC) over local councils would only result in electing governors close to the president.
