Almotamar.net - The Shoura Council will in the next days continue its discussions of the draft constitutional amendments proposed by the President of the Republic as part of his letter to the Shoura Council.

Member of the Shoura Council Abdullah Ahmed Ghanim, deputy Chairman of the Constitutional, Legal and Judicial Committee clarified that the submitted draft is a preliminary and would be discussed by political parties and civil society organisations and other activities, after conclusion of the discussions at the Shoura. All that is in prelude to refer the draft in its final formula by the President of the Republic to the parliament at an enough time before putting it to the referendum in coincidence with the parliamentary elections scheduled on 27 April 2009.

Mr Ghanim added that the draft was prepared in implementation of the election platform of President Ali Abdullah Saleh for which he won the people's confidence and it represents a large political and constitutional reform. He added the draft aims to achieve an important development in the legislative power structure so that to be composed of two chambers: the parliament and the Shoura Council and that necessitated that the amendment to launch the People's Assembly for the legislative power.

The draft amendment, Mr Ghanim says, aims to reconsider the constitutional terms of the president of the republic and the parliament , so that the president's term would be for 5 years instead of seven and the parliament for four years instead of six in addition to change the constitutional text concerning allocation of 15% of representative councils for the woman.