almotamar.net - The Yemeni Election for Monitoring Network YEMN and the National Democratic Institute NDI said Wednesday the process of registration in voter records carried out by subcommittees during the period from 11- 25 of last November was a first step within Yemen efforts for preparation for the upcoming parliamentary elections. The two organisations indicated in a preliminary report by their observers to a number of positive and negative remarks they said they permeated the stage of revising and amending voter records.

A statement issued by the YEMN and NDI on Tuesday, almotamar.net obtained a copy of it, pointed out that the difference between the political parties on the elections and effect of that on the process of registration shows that there are many of tangible and essential tasks that must be made for the success of the upcoming elections that must reflect expectations and hopes of the entire Yemeni people.

In response to a question by almotamar.net on the volume of their participation in overseeing and monitoring of the stage of revising and amending the voter records, a source from the NDI said they participated with 330 observers who attended at the constituencies in 13 governorates. On the positive sides the report of the observers of the YEMN and the NDI monitored, the two organisations praised facilitation of the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum SCER in issuing observation cards for the international and local observers as well as facilitation offered by registration committees the entering of observers to their headquarters.

In reference to fomenting campaigns launched by the Joint Meeting Parties JMP against the electoral committees and developed into acts of road blocking and attacks and anarchic gatherings around committees headquarters , the two organisations report mentioned that those practices were within the negative aspects that permeated the that stage and ascribed their causes to disagreement between the parties. The report made it clear it was due to non-existence of accord among the partners of the political action and that helped create some problems in the process of registration, such as the closure of some registration centres or the demonstrations near the centres or the occurrence of acts of violence in some areas.


The observers also reported positive remarks on cooperation by members of the election committees with voters and impartiality of security committees which was noted in many cases.

Among he negative aspects mentioned in the observers report were the weakness of the media in electoral enlightenment and absence of posters that should be made by the SCER, indicating also to non-availability of enough electoral materials and requirements with some of registration committees. And in some cases there was a lack in training the committees to carry out the process of registration.

The YEMN and NDI pointed out they would issue detailed report in January 2009 on the registration process along with recommendations for improving the process of registration.