By: Jamil al-Jadabi - SANA'A-Twenty female candidates from the General People's Congress (GPC) have won the local council elections in various governorates according to the final vote-counting results.
Observers and analysts see that nominating forty women from the GPC to run for the local council elections was an adventure in itself as the opposition parties didn't show support for women candidates, in addition to the social traditions regarding women's participation in the political affairs. But however difficult the experience was, twenty women candidates could win in the local council elections in the governorates of Sa'adah, Taiz, Aden, Ibb, Hudeidah, and Abyan.
Amat al-Rahman Jahhaf, who gained 10,718 votes in Taiz governorate, said this is her second experience in the local council elections.
" My experience in the local council elections was , though not easy, a distinctive one as there was no other GPC candidate in the district and my rival is a mosque preacher who could meet with people. He tried to spread rumors against me, but voters didn't believe him," she told almotamar.net.

She added that she faced financial obstacles during the election campaign .
Yusra Noman is another GPC candidate that won the local council election in the same governorate. Her rival, Sameer Sufian, is a candidate of the Islah Party, but he gained 811 votes against 934 votes for her.
Noman ascribes her success to the support of the GPC and President Ali Abdullah Saleh for women candidates.

On 20 August, President Saleh announced his support for women candidates running for the local council elections after they protested against their parties that failed them. Still, women's participation in the local council elections is not that strong comparing with male candidates. Only 147 women candidates ran for the local elections. Of them, 22 were candidates at the level of governorates, and 125 at the level of districts. 73 of them were independent candidates, while the candidate of the GPC reached 38, followed by the Socialist Party that had 12 candidates. The Green Party had 7 candidates; the Nasserite Unionist 5; the National Front Party 4; Popular Liberation Party 3; and the rest of candidates belong to the Nasserite Reform, Nasserite Democratic Party and the National League Party.

Below are some of the GPC candidates who won in the local council elections.
Taiz governorate:
1-Nidhal Mohammed Hassan al-Shaibani
2-Shadiah Mohammed Saeed
3-Amat al-Rahman Jahhaf
4-Yusra Noman Mohammed al-Haj
5-Alema Abdu Ali Thabet
6-Hadiah Ali Naji al-Bureihi

Sa'adah governorate:
1- Aman Hassan Sallam
2- Fawziah Saleh al-Khawlani
Aden governorate:
1- Fatima al-Muraisi
2-Um al-Khair al-Sa'di
3-Valentina Abdul-Karim Mahdi
4- Najeeba Mohammed Sagheer
5- Afrah Jaber
Ibb governorate :
1-Amena Muhsen al-Abd
2-Faizah al-Ba'dani
Hudeidah governorate:
1-Shu'eiyah Darwish Mohammed
2-Ridhawanah Ali Othman