Yemeni presidential election, 2006

The Yemen presidential election of 2006 was held on 20 September 2006. Incumbent president Ali Abdullah Saleh of the General People's Congress party defeated the Yemen opposition coalition candidate Faisal Bin Shamlan. Municipal elections were also held on the same day.

Candidates

Ali Abdullah Saleh has been president of modern Yemen ever since its reunification in 1990. Prior to reunification, Saleh was the president of Yemen Arab Republic from 1978 to 1990. He became Yemen's first directly elected president in 1999, winning more than 96% of the vote.

On 17 July 2005, Saleh announced that he would not run for presidency in the 2006 electioncite news|title=Bowing out?|publisher=Al-Ahram Weekly|date=21 July–27 July 2006|url=http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/752/re2.htm] and later reconfirmed his decision on 21 June 2006 while addressing fellow party members.cite news|title=“It’s not a political ploy,” says President Saleh|publisher=Yemen Times|date=21 June 2006|url=http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=957&p=front&a=1] This announcement sparked demonstrations of thousands of Yemenis urging Saleh to reverse his decision as well as demonstrations of thousands urging Saleh to follow through with his decision. However, while addressing tens of thousands of supporters in Sana'a on the 24 June 2006, Saleh rescinded his earlier decisioncite news|title=Yemeni president to stand again|publisher=BBC News|date=24 June 2006|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5112540.stm] stating "I comply with the people's pressure and upon the people's desire; I will run in the coming polls." This is not the first time Saleh has reversed the decision to not run; he did so in the 1999 election.cite news|title=Yemen president seeks another run|publisher=Aljazeera|date=24 June 2006|url=http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B069CD50-9689-4F00-BF03-E909A237D329.htm]

On 2 July 2006 a coalition of opposition parties named Faisal Bin Shamlan as their candidate. Prior to the reunification of South and North Yemen in 1990, Shamlan was the Minister of Infrastructure and Oil in the socialist government of South Yemen.

Violence

On 29 August 2006, the nephew of presidential candidate Ahmad Al Majeedi was gunned down in his house by unidentified gunmen. Adel Al Majeedi was leading the election campaign for his uncle in his home province of Lahj. The shooting is under investigation and no suspects have been identified. Al Majeedi's membership in the Yemen Socialist Party was frozen, and he was accused by the party of working for the ruling party, the General People's Congress (GPC).cite news| title= Nephew of presidential candidate gunned down |publisher=Yemen Times|date=30 August 2006|url=http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=977&p=local&a=2]

On 12 September 2006, at least 51 people were killed and more than 200 injured when a stampede broke out in a stadium packed with thousands of supporters of Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The stadium exceeded its capacity of around 10,000 with a crowd that included government workers and students brought in on government buses.cite news| title= 51 killed in stampede at Yemeni rally | author=Ahmed Al-Haj| publisher=Associated Press|date=12 September 2006|url=http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4181825.html]

The day of the election was marked by some violence; according to the opposition, eight people died in clashes. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5362592.stm "Yemen president leads vote count"] , BBC.co.uk, September 21 2006.] Khaled Hassan, an opposition Nasserist candidate running in the municipal elections, was killed in a clash with ruling party supporters in Taiz province. [ [http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/20/africa/ME_GEN_Yemen_Elections_Violence.php "Yemeni municipal elections candidate killed south of capital"] , The Associated Press, September 20 2006.]

Results

According to election officials, with about 4% of ballot boxes counted Saleh had 82% of the vote and bin Shamlan had 16%. An election official also said that about five million people voted (out of 9.2 million eligible voters). [ [http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B913D68A-83C0-44C3-96BA-0D37E283CBB2.htm "Yemen president leads in election polls"] , Aljazeera.net, September 21 2006.] The opposition disputed this overwhelming majority for Saleh, saying that the count gave Saleh 60% and bin Shamlan 40%, and it alleged electoral violations. The European Union Election Observation Mission called the election "an open and genuine contest", but with "important shortcomings". It said that at some polling stations there was intimidation, violation of voter secrecy, campaigning by the GPC, and underage voting. [Donna Abu-Nasr, [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/09/21/international/i084023D66.DTL&type=politics "Yemeni Opposition Alleges Violations"] , Associated Press, September 21 2006.]

Subsequent results, with most (17,000 out of 27,000) of the ballot boxes counted, continued to give Saleh an overwhelming majority, with 3.4 million votes against 880,000 for bin Shamlan. The opposition, alleging fraud, threatened a massive protest. [Donna Abu-Nasr, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/22/AR2006092200956.html?nav=hcmodule "Yemeni Opposition Threatens Protest"] , AP, September 22 2006.]

Final results on September 23 showed Saleh with 77.2% of the vote and bin Shamlan with 21.8%. [ [http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C1D34DD6-1A72-4FA2-8A59-0428AA2AB14D.htm "Saleh re-elected president of Yemen"] , Aljazeera.net, September 23 2006.] Bin Shamlan subsequently accepted the results as a "reality", although he said that they did not reflect the people's will. Saleh was sworn in for his new term on September 27. [ [http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=110037&version=1&template_id=37&parent_id=17 "Saleh sworn in for another term"] , "Gulf Times" (Qatar), September 28, 2006.]

Notes