2003 Yemeni parliamentary election

none Yemen 27 April 2003 1997 Next All 301 seats in the House of Representatives 151 76.58% ( 15.62pp) General People's Congress (Yemen) Ali Abdullah Saleh 229 187 57.79 Al-Islah (Yemen) Abdullah ibn Husayn al-Ahmar 53 45 22.51 Yemeni Socialist Party Ali Salih 'Ubad Muqbil new 7 4.86 Nasserist Unionist People's Organisation Abdulmalik Al-Mekhlafi 3 3 1.83 Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Yemen Region Qasim Salaam ar قاسم سلام 2 2 0.68 GPC–Al-Islah – New 1 0.42 no Independents – 54 14 10.35 Prime Minister Abdul Qadir Bajamal General People's Congress (Yemen) Abdul Qadir Bajamal General People's Congress (Yemen) Parliamentary elections were held in Yemen on 27 April 2003 to elect all 301 members of the House of Representatives for a six-year term. The elections had originally been scheduled to take place in 2001. The General People's Congress of President Ali Abdullah Saleh received 58% of the vote, increasing its majority in the parliament with 229 MPs. As of , these remain the most recent parliamentary elections in Yemen, as the country fell into civil war eleven years later. Campaign The elections were conducted under a new electoral code, the General Elections and Referendum Law, which was adopted by Parliament in November 2000 and approved in a national referendum in February 2001. All 301 members of Parliament were elected from single-member constituencies using a first-past-the-post voting system. The official campaign period lasted from 8 April to 26 April. 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.http://www.yemenparliament.org/ Yemen Parliament 2011-06-11 2011-06-15 https://web.archive.org/web/20110615014117/http://www.yemenparliament.org/ dead Results The General People's Congress was immediately joined by 12 independents. Results in three seats were invalidated.Yemen between Democratization and Prolonged Power Colombia International Affairs Online Despite the increase in the number of women voters, only one woman was elected, down from two in the 1997 elections. On 10 May 2003, the new House of Representatives convened its first meeting and re-elected Abdullah ibn Husayn al-Ahmar as its speaker. File:2003 Yemen House of Representatives.svg General People's Congress 3465117 229 +42 Al-Islah 1349485 45 –8 Yemeni Socialist Party 291541 7 New Nasserist Unionist People's Organisation 109714 3 0 Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party 40872 2 0 General People's Congress–Al-Islah 25352 1 New National Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party 23745 0 0 Nasserist Reform Organisation 15257 0 0 Union of Popular Forces 11967 0 – Democratic Nasserist Party 9829 0 0 National Democratic Front 7056 0 – Social Nationalist Party – Yemen 5349 0 – Party of Truth 4585 0 0 People's Democratic Party 4077 0 – Democratic Union of Popular Forces 3003 0 – Social Green Party 2276 0 – Popular Unity Party 1739 0 – Yemeni League Party 1383 0 – Liberation Front Party 1282 0 – Popular Unionist Liberation Party 1241 0 – Yemeni Unionist Gathering 483 0 – Democratic September Organization 81 0 – Independents 620615 14 –40 205205 0 8097514 Yemen NIC References Category:Elections in Yemen Parliamentary Yemen