Despite some irregularities and complaints from opposition parties, Yemen’s recent democratic elections have been hailed a success for the country and region. For the first time, Ali Abdullah Saleh, the country’s president of 28 years and winner of these recent elections, faced genuine competition.

“The fact that in the region an incumbent president is being seriously challenged is a major step forward,” said Madrid Robin, NDI country representative.

The US-based National Democratic Institute (NDI), which has been supporting Yemen’s democratisation process for several years, said that the country’s first contested presidential elections were a major step towards democracy.

In its preliminary report released 21 September, the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) described the elections as "an open and genuine contest… and positive development in Yemen’s democratisation process".

“The election in general was the best in the region. It was real with genuine contest,” said Ali Saif Hasan, political analyst and head of the Sana’a-based non-governmental organisation Political Development Forum.

On Sunday night, the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum (SCER) announced the final results of the presidential race. Saleh of the ruling General Peoples’ Congress party won with 77.1 percent of the vote while his main challenger, Faisal bin Shamlan of the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), secured 21.8 percent. The elections were held on 20 September.

The SCER said that 4,149,673 people voted for Saleh while 1,173,524 voted for Shamlan. The next closest candidate, Fathi al-Azab of the independent Islah party, got 24,524 votes. The commission added that some 65 percent of the 9.2 million registered voters cast ballots.

The SCER, for its part, has come under fire by some. “Due to lack of experience and competence on the part of SCER to handle this process, the last stage of the electoral process has distorted and minimised the scale of this laudable achievement,” Hasan said, alluding to reports of intimidation and interference in many polling stations during the voting and counting stages.

Irregularities

The EU observers’ report also noted some irregularities, including underage voting, voter intimidation, arrest of opposition candidates, illegal campaigning by the ruling party and breaches of secrecy of the vote.

“The elections were negatively affected by a number of important issues... These include the overwhelming use of state resources by the ruling party during the election campaign and a perception of partisanship within the decision-making of the election administration,” the report stated.

It added that state agencies, particularly the police and military, showed overwhelming support to the campaign of the incumbent, despite their obligation to remain neutral.

During a news conference on Sunday following the announcement of his victory, Saleh acknowledged the shortcomings and promised to set them right in the future. "What distinguishes this election is the participation of the opposition, which gave the vote importance and presence in the international community,” he said.

The opposition coalition accused the ruling GPC party of rigging presidential elections and threatened to encourage its supporters to stage street protests.

The opposition accused the government of seizing polling stations, evicting candidates’ representatives and stealing ballot boxes.

“Such irregularities have reduced our percentage by at least 15 percent. We believe Shamlan has secured around 40 percent of the votes counted so far,” said Mohammed Qahtan, a leading opposition politician.

However, despite the opposition’s reluctance to recognise the results, the results were endorsed by opposition representatives in SCER, which granted Saleh a winning certificate on Sunday.

Having won the contested elections, Saleh now has his work cut out. “[Saleh] will face major challenges at the political and economic levels in his new seven-year term in office,” said analyst Hasan.

Hasan said that Saleh would have to address serious issues such as poverty, unemployment and corruption, which pose major obstacles for development.

Saleh promised during his election rallies to wage a war on corruption, holding all corrupt officials accountable.

In addition, Saleh is expected to make economic and political reforms. These include his promise to amend the constitution to reduce the presidential term of office from seven to five years.

“The economic challenges are monumental and would need serious reforms that might be beyond his capacity,” Hassan said.