SANA’A: Yemen’s Parliament postponed local elections, which were due in spring 2009, for another four years, Yemen’s official news agency SABA said yesterday.
The vote followed a government request to amend an existing law to extend the councils’ tenure.
The decision sparked angry protests from opposition MPs, who walked out of the session and called on voters to boycott the elections.
“The ruling party has overturned the basics of democracy,” said a statement released by the opposition Common Forum, which groups Al-Islah (Reform) Party, the main opposition party, and the Yemeni Socialist Party.
The last municipal elections were held at the same time as the presidential ballot in September 2006, when President Ali Abdullah Saleh, incumbent since 1990, won another seven-year term.
The government justified its request on the grounds the term of the existing councils is too short and that holding elections would be expensive.
Opposition parties have been organizing demonstrations around Yemen, after negotiations with the ruling General People’s Congress failed to reach a compromise.
