SANAA, 25 July 2006 — Five candidates for Yemen’s September presidential elections, including incumbent President Ali Abdullah Saleh, received final approval from Parliament yesterday.
Saleh, 64, received votes of 237 MPs attending a joint session of the bicameral Parliament. Opposition candidate Faisal Bin Shamlan, also won the approval by 51 votes.
Candidatures of three other presidential hopefuls — Islamist Fathi Al-Azab, socialist Ahmed Al-Majidi and Yassin Abdu Saeed — were also approved from Parliament, which excluded 41 candidates, including three women.
On July 13, a parliamentary commission short-listed 49 eligible candidates for the presidential elections, with Saleh topping the list. Three of the candidates withdrew last week.
Under the constitution, every candidate needs final approval from five percent of the MPs attending the joint session of Parliament. Monday’s meeting was attended by 378 MPs.
Saleh’s ruling General People’s Congress maintains an overwhelming majority in Parliament. Bin Shamlan, 72, is seen as the first real rival to Saleh, who has been in power since 1978.
In Yemen’s first universal suffrage presidential vote in 1999, Saleh won with a commanding 96.3 percent margin against a competitor from his own party.
In May, Saleh announced that he would seek re-election for a new seven-year term, retracting a promise to step down made in July last year.
Saleh, who rules through the army, has served as president of North Yemen for 12 years, and then as head of state after North Yemen and South Yemen unified in 1990.
The presidential vote is due to be held simultaneously with the municipal elections in the first half of September. No exact date has yet been set for polling day.
