As the country's presidential and local elections draw nearer, and to reveal facts behind the scene, YemenOnline requested Dr. Al-Eryani to give some of his precious time and forwarded to him the following questions to know more about such a democratic event.

Q. Being the Second Deputy Chairman of GPC, how do you view this September 20 presidential and local elections?

A. These elections constitute an important historic event in the Yemeni democratic experience. The real competition for Yemen’s presidency gives an ideal example the first of the kind in Yemen and the region, and candidates were given equal opportunity by the media to express themselves and their programs freely without any restriction or deletion of their words.

Significance of the presidential election stems from the fact that it is a race for leading the country while the local election witnesses a new stage and is more important than the previous one. Local elections are the second valve of democracy in the country and people nationwide will rush to voting centers to elect more than 6,000 candidates at the voting center, district and governorate levels.

Yemeni elections, presidential, parliamentary or local, help establish democracy to the greatest extent. So all candidates have to go to voters to brief them on their programs and gain their support. I am sure that this event (presidential and local elections) will establish democracy and it is part of the Yemeni citizen’s life. So no political party or force can play with this democratic event.

Q. Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) foresee that there will be vote-fraud in the elections, and this is what they repeat in their meetings and symposiums, how do react to this?

A. JMP leaders' talk is similar to the proverb "Nickname me the Lion". They intend to say, "if we don't win, there is vote-fraud, but this never appeal to the mind of any judicious human. How do they expect fraud in elections with very clear mechanisms; in each voting center, there are many poll boxes and each candidate has a representative plus a monitor to observe the poll process. After voters cast their ballots, the vote-count will be conducted in the presence of representatives of presidential and local candidates. Therefore, the poll committees are formed from different political parties.

It is expected that there will be more than 20 thousand local and international monitors in each voting center and these monitors will observe the poll process and vote-count. Votes will be counted in the polling centers, they will not be removed to any other place and candidates' representatives will be present during the vote-count and will sign the minute of vote-results. Thus, talk about vote-fraud means that JMP leaders foresee their points of weakness and failure.

Q. Do you think the presence of international election observation teams to monitor the electoral process will add something new to the Yemeni democratic experience?

A. First of all, no one saw such presence of international election monitors in any Arab country. There are many election observation teams such the European Union (EU) and National Democratic Institute (NDI) and each team will write its report independently and away from the other team.

NDI contributed a large number of international election monitors, however this number is not like that of the EU, and it is expected that an election observation team is due to come from Washington. Each team has its own manner to observe the electoral process, assess it and write its report about it, and to my knowledge, there is no agreement between these teams to write their reports jointly. The presence of EU is unprecedented in any Arab country and I think that the reason is part of what you mentioned.

During their visit to Yemen at an early time, EU guessed that there will be no real competition and that they might attend but not with such a high number. When EU teams realized recommendation of presidential candidates by Parliament and Al-Shoura Council, their numbers and the political parties that support them, I think this convinced them that this year's elections will be strongly competitive and the rarest of the kind in the region. This fact persuaded EU to play a primary role in assessing the electoral process, and I agree with you that this year's elections will be competitive, free and fair. Really, EU plans to play an effective role in Yemen's development in the days to come.

As we know, the conference of donors and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states on Yemen development will take place in London this November, and as part of their agenda, participants will discuss the Yemeni electoral process. So, I think that successful evaluation of this year's elections will be a point of strength for EU before donors to tell them to support Yemen and its growing democracy. I expect EU to insist on donors not to abandon Yemen that experiences issues related to killing, instability and development.

EU and all donors, due to participate in London conference, have to pay attention to problems in Yemen and the EU report on elections will be the basis for discussing such issues.

Q. Some local media discuss a type of pressure, which the strongest opposition Islah party and its leaders exert on the regime. Does this party, in your viewpoint, use this year's elections as a mechanism of pressure on President Ali Abdullah Saleh to force the latter feel that the former is capable to create obstacles and difficulties to the country's future unless its demands are met?

A. I suppose that all political parties and organizations have good intents and transparency and there should not be any malicious plot against such real competition. Such interpretations have become commonplace, but I expect the opposite. This year's presidential election features strong competition, and this real competition doesn't represent a favour for Saleh by Islah Party leaders like they did in the previous election when they nominated and recommended Saleh to run for president before GPC did so.

This time, we will see that the majority of Islah party members will vote for candidates other than Saleh. If this party leaders speak of any favour for Saleh this time, it will be considered not more than an old ploy.

Q. There are many questions about why JMP selected a candidate, who has no affiliation with any of these parties. Does the selection of Bin Shamlan reflect a mechanism of togetherness (attracting others to their side) or does it reflect the incapability of these parties to nominate a person from within?

A. I have not attended JMP dialogues and discussions that reached a consensus on Bin Shamlan as their candidate. This is an irregular phenomenon, as these parties could not agree on a presidential candidate from within and these parties may have more reputable and well-known personalities than Bin Shamlan. This phenomenon raises questions about why these parties did so. I don’t try to interpret it now and I leave it for the coming days to interpret it.

Bin Shamlan’s nomination upset many JMP leaders. In the light of this, the independent candidate Ahmad Al-Majidi said that he nominated himself to run for president because he was enraged by his party that could not nominate anyone although it has many leading personalities who are eligible to run for the country’s highest political post and gain support of voters.

Q. JMP campaigns have changed into assault against the authority under the pretext of criticizing corruption and it has been made clear that this is a strategy. What does GPC say about this?

A. Talk about corruption and proposing programs to combat corruption is not only included in JMP agenda, however, GPC devoted an entire chapter of its program to fighting corruption, which is unending process and it has a mechanism to eradicate the phenomenon. On the contrary, JMP has no clear mechanism to combat corruption, and I always talk that corruption is the result of wrong policies pursued by the state. Another government’s false policy is the waste of millions of dollars Yemen received as support for development.

Corruption is the result of poor management, and we all admit that these managements, which have not met requirements included in the GPC program, have become home to corruption. Meanwhile JMP lacks these requirements.

Q. Do you think that revenge and the spread of arms are behind the most recent killing incident in Al-Jawf, or is it a conflict over local elections?

A. What happened in Al-Jawf is a tragic social occurrence, and the spread of arms is responsible for such incidents. Pessimistic people view the incident as an introduction to impeding clashes at voting centers and this pessimism has no place of reality.

Q. At their meetings, opposition leaders argue that the spread and trade of arms is one of the reasons behind corruption, poor security and dominance of the tribe, however the Islah party is an umbrella for arms traders. How do you assess this?

A. During my post in the government, I had been engaged in controversy with the Islah Party over the Arms-bearing Organization Law. Islah Party leaders insisted that the government must be responsible for registering any piece of arm seen on the shoulder of any citizen. However I told them had I had one hundred arm pieces, I would have registered one. How could the government know that I used one of the other pieces if I planned to commit a crime. The persistent issue is not, therefore, arms-bearing, rather it is the organization of arms-bearing, which is due to help reduce the crime rate and control perpetrators.

Spread of arms in Yemen constitute a great problem that necessitates prudence, patience and a long-term program until people give up possessing arms.

Q. This year’s local elections are projected to be strongly competitive. Does this signify progress of Yemen’s democracy?

A. The coming local elections are not like those of 2001, they are stronger and more competitive and their significance stems from the fact that if the candidate implements projects in his/her district or governorate, this will help him/her get a better chance to be elected once again in 2009. The past experience increased awareness of people about the importance of these elections and this is a good thing.

Q. How do you project the future of Yemen’s growing democracy to look like after September 20 presidential and local elections?

A. I think the democracy will grow better and all political parties and organizations will understand the meaning of democracy. I think the JMP electoral campaign will be imbalanced or uncontrolled. However, it is the first experience of the type in Yemen and it will lay the ground for the next democratic experiences.

I am sure that international election observers' reports will face criticism and appreciation. Consequently, this is bound to make the democratic process firmer.

Further, candidates' addresses on electoral programs will develop over time, and at the same time avoiding promises that cause harm to democracy, voter and candidate as for the one who says he will make oil prices like they were in the 80s.

Q. As Yemen is the only country that has a democratic and republican regime in the area, do you think that this is a reason behind rejecting Yemen's admission to GCC?