Yemeni parliamentary election, 2003

Yemeni parliamentary election, 2003

27 April 2003

Party Leader % Seats ± GPC Ali Abdullah Saleh 58.0% 226 +39 Al-Islah Sadiq al-Ahmar 22.6% 46 -7 YSP Ali Salih 'Ubad Muqbil 4.7% 7 New NUPO Abdulmalik Al-Mekhlafi 1.9% 3 0 Socialist Ba'ath Party Quasim Salaam 0.7% 2 0 Independent – 10.6% 14 -40

This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

Parliamentary elections were held in Yemen on 27 April 2003, having originally scheduled for 2001. The General People's Congress of President Ali Abdullah Saleh received 58% of the vote, winning 226 of the 301 seats.

Campaign

Nineteen parties fielded a total of 991 candidates for the 301 seats in the House of Representatives, in addition to 405 Independent candidates. Over eight million Yemeni citizens were registered to vote, with the number of registered women voters almost doubling since 1997 (3.4 million compared to 1.8 million).

Conduct

Although the election was deemed to be more free and fair than in previous years, there were still concerns about the conduct of the vote. The National Democratic Institute noted that:

The atmosphere of anxiety in the run-up to the elections caused by fears of violence, as well as heavy-handed and coercive measures on and after election day by elements of the ruling GPC in many polling stations across the country are troubling. There were credible reports of election law violations including political intimidation, underage voting, improper behavior by security forces, vote buying and obstruction by ruling party counting commissioners.

Results

The General People's Congress initially won 226 seats, and were immediately joined by 12 independents. Results in three seats were invalidated. Despite the increase in the number of women voters, only one woman was elected, down from two in the 1997 elections.

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
General People's Congress	3,429,888	58.01	226	+39
Al-Islah	1,333,394	22.55	46	–7
Yemeni Socialist Party	277,223	4.69	7	New
Nasserist Unionist People's Organisation	109,480	1.85	3	0
Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party	40,377	0.68	2	0
National Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party	23,745	0.40	0	0
Nasserist Reform Organisation	15,257	0.26	0	0
Yemeni Union of Popular Forces	11,967	0.20	0	–
Democratic Nasserist Party	9,829	0.17	0	0
National Democratic Front	7,056	0.12	0	–
Social Nationalist Party	5,349	0.09	0	–
Party of Truth	4,585	0.08	0	0
People's Democratic Party	4,077	0.07	0	–
Democratic Union of Popular Forces	3,003	0.05	0	–
Social Green Party	2,276	0.04	0	–
Popular Unity Party	1,739	0.03	0	–
Yemeni League Party	1,383	0.02	0	–
Liberation Front Party	1,282	0.02	0	–
Popular Unionist Liberation Party	1,241	0.02	0	–
Yemeni Unionist Gathering	483	0.01	0	–
Democratic September Organization	81	0.00	0	–
Independents	628,587	10.63	14	–40
Vacant	–	–	3	–
Invalid/blank votes	193,394	–	–	–
Total	6,105,696	100	301	0
Registered voters/turnout	8,035,721	75.98	–	–
Source: Psephos