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Yemeni president criticises opposition over election

The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh accused his country's opposition of blackmail following a failure in reaching an agreement with his party over conducting fair elections next year.

  • By Nasser Arrabyee, Correspondent
  • Published: 23:43 August 20, 2008
  • Gulf News

Sana'a: The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh accused his country's opposition of blackmail following a failure in reaching an agreement with his party over conducting fair elections next year.

Earlier in the week, the overwhelming majority of Saleh's party in the House of Representatives voted for the commission of elections according to the standing law, and rejected a draft for a new law pushed by the opposition championing free and fair elections.

Saleh told party members yesterday that the opposition should be responsible for their own decisions.

"We have no problem with the current law. This law was made in partnership with the opposition," Saleh said.

The opposition is a political alliance composed by Islamists, Socialists, and Nasserites. The House of Representatives failure to approve new elections laws was "an overthrow against democracy and returning to totalitarian system," according to the opposition.

"The House of Representatives is in the right and by stopping the opposition from blackmailing the system it has restored the people's confidence that elections will be on time," said Ahmad Al Sufi, Director of the Institute of Development and Democracy.

President Saleh said the opposition had the right to be upset, but discouraged them from taking to the streets because they lack popular support.

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