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| Registered | 9,247,390 | ||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 65.16% | ||||||||||||||||
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Presidential elections were held in Yemen on 20 September 2006, alongside local elections. Incumbent president Ali Abdullah Saleh of the General People's Congress received 77% of the vote, defeating opposition coalition candidate Faisal Bin Shamlan.
Saleh had been president of modern Yemen since its reunification in 1990, and had previously been president of the Yemen Arab Republic from 1978 to 1990. He became Yemen's first directly elected president in 1999, winning more than 96% of the vote. On 17 July 2005, Saleh announced that he would not run for presidency in the 2006, [1] later reconfirming his decision on 21 June 2006 when addressing fellow party members. [2] His announcement sparked demonstrations urging Saleh to reverse his decision, as well as demonstrations urging Saleh to follow through with his decision. However, while addressing tens of thousands of supporters in Sana'a on 24 June 2006, Saleh rescinded his earlier decision [3] stating "I comply with the people's pressure and upon the people's desire; I will run in the coming polls." This was not the first time Saleh has reversed the decision to not run, as he had previously done so prior to the 1999 elections. [4]
The Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) opposition coalition was formed in 2002 by al-Islah, the Yemeni Socialist Party, the Party of Truth, the Unionist party, and the Popular Forces Union. On 2 July 2006 Faisal Bin Shamlan was named as the alliance's candidate. Prior to the reunification of South and North Yemen in 1990, Shamlan had been the Minister of Infrastructure and Oil in the socialist government of South Yemen.
Ahmad al-Majeedi of the Yemeni Socialist Party also contested the elections. However, as he announced his candidacy before consulting with the party's leadership, his membership of the party was frozen and he was accused of working for the ruling GPC. [5]
On 29 August 2006, al-Majeedi's nephew Adel al-Majeedi was gunned down in his house by unidentified gunmen. Adel had been leading his uncle's election campaign in his home province of Lahj. [5]
On 12 September 2006, at least 51 people were killed and more than 200 injured when a stampede broke out in a stadium packed with thousands of supporters of Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The stadium exceeded its capacity of around 10,000 with a crowd that included government workers and students brought in on government buses. [6]
Election day was marked by some violence; according to the opposition, eight people died in clashes. [7] Khaled Hassan, an opposition Nasserist candidate running in the municipal elections, was killed in a clash with ruling party supporters in Taiz province. [8]
Election officials said that about five million people voted out of around 9.2 million eligible voters. [7] [9] The opposition disputed early results showing Saleh with 82% of the vote, saying that the count gave Saleh 60% and Bin Shamlan 40%; it also claimed there had been electoral violations. The European Union Election Observation Mission called the election "an open and genuine contest", but with "important shortcomings". It said that at some polling stations there was intimidation, violation of voter secrecy, campaigning by the GPC, and underage voting. [10]
Subsequent results, with most (17,000 out of 27,000) of the ballot boxes counted, continued to give Saleh an overwhelming majority, with 3.4 million votes against 880,000 for Bin Shamlan. The opposition, continuing to allege fraud, threatened a massive protest. [11]
Final results on 23 September showed Saleh with 77.2% of the vote and Bin Shamlan with 21.8%. [12] Bin Shamlan subsequently accepted the results as a "reality", although he said that they did not reflect the people's will. Saleh was sworn in for his new term on 27 September. [13]
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ali Abdullah Saleh | General People's Congress | 4,149,673 | 77.17 | |
| Faisal Bin Shamlan | Joint Meeting Parties | 1,173,075 | 21.82 | |
| Fathi Mohammed al-Azab | Independent | 24,524 | 0.46 | |
| Yassin Abdo Saeed No'aman | National Opposition Council | 21,642 | 0.40 | |
| Ahmad al-Majeedi | Independent | 8,324 | 0.15 | |
| Total | 5,377,238 | 100.00 | ||
| Valid votes | 5,377,238 | 89.24 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 648,580 | 10.76 | ||
| Total votes | 6,025,818 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 9,247,390 | 65.16 | ||
| Source: IFES | ||||
The Politics of Yemen are in an uncertain state due to the Houthi takeover in Yemen. An armed group known as the Houthis or Ansar Allah seized control of the Northern Yemeni government and announced it would dissolve parliament, as well as install a "presidential council", "transitional national council", and "supreme revolutionary council" to govern the country for an interim period. However, the deposed president, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, has declared he is still in office and is working to establish a rival government in Aden.
Ali Abdullah Saleh al-Ahmar was a Yemeni politician who served as the first President of Yemen, from Yemeni unification on 22 May 1990 to his resignation on 25 February 2012, following the Yemeni Revolution. Previously, he had served as President of the Yemen Arab Republic, or North Yemen, from July 1978 to 22 May 1990, after the assassination of President Ahmad al-Ghashmi.
The General People's Congress is a political party in Yemen. It has been the de jure ruling party of Yemen since 1993, three years after unification. The party is dominated by a nationalist line, and its official ideology is Arab nationalism, seeking Arab unity. In the course of the Yemeni Civil War, the party's founder and leader Ali Abdullah Saleh was killed, while the GPC fractured into three factions backing different sides in the conflict.
Elections in Yemen take place within the framework of a presidential system, with both the President and House of Representatives elected by the public. Due to political instability, elections have not been held regularly since the early 2000s.
The Yemeni Socialist Party is a political party in Yemen. A successor of Yemen's National Liberation Front, it was the ruling party in South Yemen until Yemeni unification in 1990. Originally Marxist–Leninist, the party has gradually evolved into a social democratic opposition party in today's unified Yemen.
Faisal Othman Bin Shamlan was a Yemeni intellectual, technocrat, political reformist and public figure. He was a Yemeni member of parliament who had held the post of Oil and Mineral Resources Minister in the post-unification government of Yemen. Prior to the reunification of Yemen in 1990, Shamlan was the Minister of Infrastructure and Oil in the socialist government of South Yemen. He was the recognized presidential candidate of the Yemeni opposition coalition, a coalition which consists of the Islamist Islah, the Yemen Socialist Party and several smaller parties, in the 2006 presidential election, but was defeated by incumbent president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The modern history of Yemen began with the withdrawal of the Ottoman Empire. In 1839 the British set up a protective area around the southern port of Aden and in 1918 the northern Kingdom of Yemen gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. North Yemen became a republic in 1962, but it was not until 1967 that the British Empire withdrew from what became South Yemen. In 1970, the southern government adopted a communist governmental system. The two countries were formally united as the Republic of Yemen on May 22, 1990.
Direct presidential elections were held in Yemen for the first time on 23 September 1999. Candidates had to be approved by at least 10% of the 301 members of the House of Representatives; however, in practice this meant that only two parties, the ruling General People's Congress (GPC) and Al-Islah had enough seats to nominate their candidates. However, al-Islah backed the GPC candidate, incumbent President Ali Abdullah Saleh rather than running a candidate of their own.
Parliamentary elections were held in Yemen on 27 April 1997. The governing General People's Congress of President Ali Abdullah Saleh won a landslide victory, taking 187 of the 301 seats, although several opposition parties including the Yemeni Socialist Party boycotted the election alleging that the government had harassed and arrested their party workers. The main opposition party, al-Islah, attacked the government for not carrying out economic reforms and for corruption. Voter turnout was 61.0%.
The Yemeni Civil War was a civil war fought between the two Yemeni forces of the pro-union northern and the socialist separatist southern Yemeni states and their supporters. The war resulted in the defeat of the southern armed forces, the reunification of Yemen, and the flight into exile of many Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) leaders and other separatists.
Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi is a Yemeni politician and former field marshal of the Yemeni Armed Forces who served as the president of Yemen from 2012 until 2022, when he stepped down and formed the Presidential Leadership Council with former interior minister Rashad al-Alimi as its chairman. He was the vice president to Ali Abdullah Saleh from 1994 to 2012. Although Hadi has international recognition, following the 22 January 2015 armed takeover by Houthis, his position as president of Yemen has been rejected by Houthis. Because of ongoing military operations inside Yemen, Hadi currently spends much of his time in exile in Saudi Arabia.
The Yemeni Revolution (intifada), also known as the Yemeni Revolution of Dignity followed the initial stages of the Tunisian Revolution and occurred simultaneously with the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and other Arab Spring protests in the Middle East and North Africa. In its early phase, protests in Yemen were initially against unemployment, economic conditions and corruption, as well as against the government's proposals to modify Yemen's constitution. The protesters' demands then escalated to calls for the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Mass defections from the military, as well as from Saleh's government, effectively rendered much of the country outside of the government's control, and protesters vowed to defy its authority.
The following is a timeline of the 2011–2012 Yemeni revolution from 3 June through 22 September 2011. The Yemeni revolution was a series of major protests, political tensions, and armed clashes taking place in Yemen, which began in January 2011 and were influenced by concurrent protests in the region. Hundreds of protesters, members of armed groups, army soldiers and security personnel were killed, and many more injured, in the largest protests to take place in the South Arabian country for decades.
Presidential elections were held in Yemen on 21 February 2012. Acting President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi was the only candidate, and was subsequently sworn into office on 25 February 2012.
The following is a timeline of the 2011–2012 Yemeni revolution from January to 27 February 2012. The Yemeni revolution was a series of major protests, political tensions, and armed clashes taking place in Yemen, which began in January 2011 and were influenced by concurrent protests in the region. Hundreds of protesters, members of armed groups, army soldiers and security personnel were killed, and many more injured, in the largest protests to take place in the South Arabian country for decades.
Yemeni peace process refers to the proposals and negotiations to pacify the Yemeni Crisis by arranging a power transfer scheme within the country and later cease-fire attempts within the raging civil war. While initially unsuccessful, the reconciliation efforts resulted with presidential elections, held in Yemen in February 2012. The violence in Yemen, however, continued during the elections and after, culminating in Houthi successful grip of power and the ensuing civil war.
The Houthi takeover in Yemen, also known as the September 21 Revolution, or 2014–15 coup d'état, was a popular revolution against Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi led by the Houthis and their supporters that pushed the Yemeni government from power. It had origins in Houthi-led protests that began the previous month, and escalated when the Houthis stormed the Yemeni capital Sanaa on 21 September 2014, causing the resignation of Prime Minister Mohammed Basindawa, and later the resignation of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and his ministers on 22 January 2015 after Houthi forces seized the presidential palace, residence, and key military installations, and the formation of a ruling council by Houthi militants on 6 February 2015.
The aftermath of the Houthi takeover in Yemen refers to developments following the Houthis' takeover of the Yemeni capital of Sana'a and dissolution of the government, which eventually led to a civil war and the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.
The Battle of Sanaa (2017) was fought between forces loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Houthis in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a. Both sides were allied during the 2014–15 Houthi takeover of the government but the alliance ended when Saleh decided to break ranks with the Houthis and call for dialogue with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who are leading a military intervention in Yemen. Fighting then broke out between the Houthis and forces loyal to Saleh as the Saudi-led coalition began bombing Houthi areas, ultimately resulting in Saleh's death and a Houthi victory.
| Presidential elections | |
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| Parliamentary elections | |
| Pre-unification elections | |
| Referendums | |
