![[Yemen] Workers lug ballot boxes into storage at the SCER. [Date picture taken: 09/12/2006]](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/20069122.jpg.webp?itok=zfFNKaET "Workers put ballot boxes into storage in preparation for Yemen's elections.")
Seven days before elections, the atmosphere at Yemen’s Supreme Council for Elections and Referendum (SCER) is tense. Frowning officials on round-the-clock shifts stamp ballot papers; printers hammer out voter lists; and a soldier paces the entrance to the marquee where ballot boxes are sealed for delivery.
“We’ll get it done in time,” said Dr Mohamad Al Sayani, Chairman of Logistics and Planning for the SCER.
Dr Sayani’s staff are overseeing the printing of 28 million ballot papers with more than 5,600 different designs. Once completed, the ballot papers and boxes have to be delivered to nearly 6,000 polling centres before election day on 20 September.
For the first time, three elections will be held at once in Yemen; hence the enormous number of different ballot papers. Voters will choose representatives at district, governorate and national level.
The ballot papers are almost ready, said Sayani. The delivery will take three days.
Yemen’s presidential and local council elections are the most logistically complex the country has ever seen, said Dr Paul Harris, country director of the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), an elections support NGO.
However, Dr Harris believes preparations are moving ahead reasonably well. “IFES is favourably impressed with the technical preparations,” he said.
Despite his optimism, massive logistical challenges lie ahead. Just a week before ‘e-day’, a large number of personnel responsible for running the elections on the ground have only just been recruited, and are not yet trained, said Dr Sayani.
This is largely due to political issues: Yemen’s practice is that all elections staff are recruited from the respective political parties, with the parties agreeing on the proportion for each party bloc.
The opposition bloc, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), which has been highly critical of what they see as SCER’s lack of independence, submitted names at the last minute for their representatives. Now that the JMP names have been submitted, training will be carried out this week for more than 80,000 personnel nationwide.
IFES has concerns over a lack of quality control in this training process and a lack of qualified trainers.
Security concerns
Another key issue in the run-up to Yemen’s elections is security – whether preventing politically motivated attacks, election rigging or logistical accidents.
Violence marred the start of the campaign period in several provinces while on Tuesday, more than 50 people were killed and dozens more injured in a stampede at an election campaign rally for incumbent Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Some 300,000 people had crowded into a stadium in Ibb, 170km south of Sana’a in support of the ruling party.
President Saleh and opposition groups have offered condolences to the families of the victims.
While the military is playing a dominant role in elections logistics, pre-elections assessments by both IFES and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), another US-based democracy NGO, emphasise that the SCER should take complete control of elections security.
“Historically, Yemen’s elections have been marred by violence and allegations of misconduct by military personnel stationed at polling centres,” the NDI stated.
Army vehicles will deliver most of the ballot papers, and the military have total control over communications and an ‘operations room’ on elections day.
While the military may be the best prepared to handle the complex logistics of the elections, IFES said their pervasive involvement could compromise the impartiality of the elections.
Dr Sayani believes that control by the SCER over security arrangements is adequate, however. “Of course they [the army] have their own command structures, but we have given training to 333 heads of security committees in cooperation with UNDP [United Nations Development Programme], and they’ll be trainers for the rest of the personnel. They have good manuals from us and are instructed to be neutral.”
Another concern is that the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is due to begin three days after the elections. As counting is required to be completed within 72 hours of the end of polling, Dr Harris of IFES is concerned that the hurry to finish the count could hamper the process.
However, the government is confident that the elections will be carried out without any hitches. “We have high expectations of these elections. I believe they will be the freest and fairest Yemen has ever seen. We are happy with the preparations being made by the SCER,” said Mohamad Abulahoum of the ruling General People’s Congress party.
Dr Harris is more cautious. “The SCER is working hard and is more willing to exercise its powers of enforcement now. But there are a lot of matters outside their control: parties playing games, local sheikhs and dignitaries hijacking the process in some areas,” he said.
“It’s still too early to say whether these elections will adequately reflect the will of the Yemeni voters. But I am optimistic.”
VIJ/ED
“We’ll get it done in time,” said Dr Mohamad Al Sayani, Chairman of Logistics and Planning for the SCER.
Dr Sayani’s staff are overseeing the printing of 28 million ballot papers with more than 5,600 different designs. Once completed, the ballot papers and boxes have to be delivered to nearly 6,000 polling centres before election day on 20 September.
For the first time, three elections will be held at once in Yemen; hence the enormous number of different ballot papers. Voters will choose representatives at district, governorate and national level.
The ballot papers are almost ready, said Sayani. The delivery will take three days.
Yemen’s presidential and local council elections are the most logistically complex the country has ever seen, said Dr Paul Harris, country director of the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), an elections support NGO.
However, Dr Harris believes preparations are moving ahead reasonably well. “IFES is favourably impressed with the technical preparations,” he said.
Despite his optimism, massive logistical challenges lie ahead. Just a week before ‘e-day’, a large number of personnel responsible for running the elections on the ground have only just been recruited, and are not yet trained, said Dr Sayani.
This is largely due to political issues: Yemen’s practice is that all elections staff are recruited from the respective political parties, with the parties agreeing on the proportion for each party bloc.
The opposition bloc, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), which has been highly critical of what they see as SCER’s lack of independence, submitted names at the last minute for their representatives. Now that the JMP names have been submitted, training will be carried out this week for more than 80,000 personnel nationwide.
IFES has concerns over a lack of quality control in this training process and a lack of qualified trainers.
Security concerns
Another key issue in the run-up to Yemen’s elections is security – whether preventing politically motivated attacks, election rigging or logistical accidents.
Violence marred the start of the campaign period in several provinces while on Tuesday, more than 50 people were killed and dozens more injured in a stampede at an election campaign rally for incumbent Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Some 300,000 people had crowded into a stadium in Ibb, 170km south of Sana’a in support of the ruling party.
President Saleh and opposition groups have offered condolences to the families of the victims.
While the military is playing a dominant role in elections logistics, pre-elections assessments by both IFES and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), another US-based democracy NGO, emphasise that the SCER should take complete control of elections security.
“Historically, Yemen’s elections have been marred by violence and allegations of misconduct by military personnel stationed at polling centres,” the NDI stated.
Army vehicles will deliver most of the ballot papers, and the military have total control over communications and an ‘operations room’ on elections day.
While the military may be the best prepared to handle the complex logistics of the elections, IFES said their pervasive involvement could compromise the impartiality of the elections.
Dr Sayani believes that control by the SCER over security arrangements is adequate, however. “Of course they [the army] have their own command structures, but we have given training to 333 heads of security committees in cooperation with UNDP [United Nations Development Programme], and they’ll be trainers for the rest of the personnel. They have good manuals from us and are instructed to be neutral.”
Another concern is that the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is due to begin three days after the elections. As counting is required to be completed within 72 hours of the end of polling, Dr Harris of IFES is concerned that the hurry to finish the count could hamper the process.
However, the government is confident that the elections will be carried out without any hitches. “We have high expectations of these elections. I believe they will be the freest and fairest Yemen has ever seen. We are happy with the preparations being made by the SCER,” said Mohamad Abulahoum of the ruling General People’s Congress party.
Dr Harris is more cautious. “The SCER is working hard and is more willing to exercise its powers of enforcement now. But there are a lot of matters outside their control: parties playing games, local sheikhs and dignitaries hijacking the process in some areas,” he said.
“It’s still too early to say whether these elections will adequately reflect the will of the Yemeni voters. But I am optimistic.”
VIJ/ED
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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