The term of previous commissioners of the Yemen Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum (SCER) expired in November 2007. Since then a political impasse on the composition of the commissioners has delayed the appointment of the new SCER. The SCER Secretariat continues to function under the direction and leadership of the Secretary General (SG), Mr. Shaif Al-Husaini. However, only commissioners can take necessary decisions to proceed on critical areas of potential electoral reform and policy changes.

The Constitution and the election law mandate the SCER redraw boundaries of local electoral and parliamentary constituencies after a general census. The failure (for various political reasons) of the SCER to accurately redraw local constituency boundaries is the root cause for many of the logistical and political problems plaguing the implementation of the 2006 elections.

Discussions with the SCER in late October 2007 strongly indicated that revising the electoral boundaries prior to the 2009 elections is feasible, and the SCER technical staff already received training on how to utilize GIS for boundary delimitation. The UNDP Election Support Project with support from the Japanese Government enabled the SCER to acquire GIS hardware and software. The previous commission demonstrated a commitment to new boundary delimitation exercises by taking the necessary steps to carry out boundary delimitation prior to the 2009 elections. Given continued political interference, shortage of time and the magnitude of the task, it is now apparent the SCER will not be able to carry out this exercise in an accurate and timely fashion.

In addition, it is widely anticipated the new SCER commissioners will not possess significant electoral background or experience. With a complete set of new commissioners, previous corporate knowledge and institutional memory will be lost, as well as the perception of improved election standards previously attained during Yemen’s 2003 Parliamentary and 2006 Presidential elections. This loss may seriously impede the SCER’s ability to fulfill expectations of professional and adequate preparation for Yemen’s 2009 parliamentary elections, and may increase the need for professional development training sessions and study tours for newly appointed commissioners to enhance their election administration capabilities.

The delay in appointing the SCER commissioners impeded IFES’ plans to audit the accuracy of the existing voters list through a necessary sample survey to build the voters’ confidence on the register. The 2006 voter list update was marred by the opposition party’s boycott of the nomination of members for the sub-committees. As a result, the operation relied on poorly trained and inexperienced civil service applicants. There were numerous cases of registration of underage voters, improper confirmation of identity, and multiple registrations – all of which cast serious doubt on the integrity of the voter list. At the end of the registration period, 1.5 million new registrants had been added to the 8 million registered voters of Yemen. However, an exhaustive review of the voter list by the SCER and the courts resulted in the removal of 300,000 multiple registrants and underage registrants. This review was not open and transparent, leading to opposition Joint Meeting Party suspicions that it might have been influenced by partisanship. Also, the June 18 Agreement signed by the ruling party and the oppositions’ parties included provisions relating to a further review of voter registers. The final voter list of approximately 9.17 million voters is considered reasonably accurate by the SCER. However, there has been no independent verification of the quality of the voter list, and estimates of error rates are as high as 20 percent.

The Yemeni government showed its commitment to tackling corruption issues, however, aspects of political finance still lack transparency are not subject to meaningful regulation or oversight. Most, if not all, post elections reports in 2006 clearly indicated need for such reform. Legislative reforms are lengthy processes that require consultative dialogue with political players - at least ones represented in Parliament. It is important such issues be addressed before next year to allow ample time for compliance, issuance of necessary regulations and training of implementing agencies. IFES’ Political finance specialist, Dr. Marcin Walecki, will travel to Sana’a June 21, 2008, to assess the political finance landscape in order to determine the most effective and appropriate course of action. In this trip Dr. Walecki plans to meet with stakeholders including the Committee for the Affairs of Political Parties, political parties, NDI, NGOs, MPs, media representatives and the Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption (SNACC). Dr. Walecki will also meet with academics and SCER technical staff to discuss international best practice and reform options. The trip will attempt to galvanize support for reform. To conclude Dr. Walecki’s visit, IFES will hold a one-day conference entitled, Campaign Funding and Political Finance in Developing Democracies in the 21st Century.