Twenty governors were elected for assuming reasonability in 20 different provinces and the capital Sana’a. Only eight provinces witnessed competitive elections, while it was no more than an uncontested win in others as there were no rivals.

Being a new experience in Yemen, some observers emphasize that it is better to accept it rather than to reject altogether especially when these elections can be made later through people in a free and impartial manner in the future.

When General People Congress (GPC) enjoys overwhelming majority in local councils today, the party may not have such majority tomorrow and this will be for opposition.

Other observers stress that it was necessary for opposition parties represented by Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) to accept these elections and to condition direct elections by people later.

They also hint that the electoral process witnessed a frantic race between candidates to win the post of governor as was the case in Mareb, Al-Jawf, Abyan, Al-Baidha and Raymah.

Provinces like Sana’a, Hajjah, Sa’ada and Amran had been to witness similar and feverish competition if GPC did not interfere to pressure some candidates, belonging to the party, to withdraw their candidacy.

However, some GPC candidates resisted the pressures and declined any temptations and they managed to win over their rivals who were nominated by the General Secretariat of GPC.

The case is applicable to Mareb province where independent Naji Al-Zaidi achieved overwhelming victory over his GPC’s General Secretariat member Hussein Hazeb with 141 votes for the former against 28 votes for the latter.

Likewise, the independent candidate bin Abdan won over the candidate nominated by GPC’s General Secretariat Fadhl Al-Qusi; however, the result is still suspended after Al-Qusi contested it. The court ordered conducting reelections.

In an effort to resolve the current tension, President Saleh met on Friday with bin Abdan and suggested appointing both Abdan Al-Qusi for posts outside the province; while he himself appoint another governor for Al-Jawf.

In Al-Baidha province, the situation was not different from Al-Jawf and Mareb provinces as the independent candidate Mohammed Al-Ameri won over GPC’s General Secretariat candidate Nasser Al-Sawadi.

Opposition parties were not having clear stances of elections and some of their members participated in elections as in Abyan, Lahj and Ammran. In this regard, observers see that JMP declined to compete in these elections because of its weak representation in the local councils. Thus, Yemen can be likened to Britain with the Neocons who are directly elected.

Some GPC writers describe the coup by some of its members to be based on feeling with absolute contentment that there is nothing mightier than people’s will, adding that the tendencies of some electors who were described as rebels have helped bring into existence new and satisfying faces.

The electoral process was accompanied by some passive practices like exercising pressures on contenders and tempting others with ranks, posts and other political blackmailing.

JMP clang its hopes for boycotting on having cracks within the ruling party, GPC; however, it managed to get over this problem in most provinces.

The Yemeni neocons face unprecedented challenges especially in southern and eastern provinces where citizens demand more services. They are also demanded to get over a heavy load of problems, errors and performance shortcomings in the branches of service institutions.

These elections have earned the government two significant gains like easing the tension that was prevalent in some southern provinces and making the local authority shoulder part of reasonability lay always on government.

In return, new governors seek to have more authorities through appointing the chiefs of districts who are always appointed by President Saleh, so that they can control their provinces.

However, they are before a hard test in which they should prove their capabilities and the extent to which they can approach and cover for people demands.