Yemen

House of Representatives

Political system: Transitional system
Structure of parliament: Bicameral
IPU membership: Yes

Election results

Data on parliamentary elections, including the background, candidates, voter turnout, results and the formation of the new legislature. By default the latest election results are displayed. Select a date to view results from previous elections.

Background

Election date(s): 27 Apr 2003
Date of dissolution of the outgoing legislature: No information available
Timing of election: Upon normal expiry
Number of seats at stake: 301
Scope of elections: Full renewal

Election summar(ies)

For historical elections, data is provided in summary documents in PDF or HTML format.

2353_03.htm

Candidates

Number of parties contesting the election: 22
Total number of candidates: 1,536
Number of male candidates: 1,520
Number of female candidates: 16
Percentage of women candidates: 1.0%

Voter turnout

Registered voters: 8,035,721
Voters: 6,105,696
Voter turnout: 76.0%

Results

About the election: On 27 April 2003, more than eight million voters elected the 301 members of the Parliament in the country's third parliamentary elections, since its unification in 1990. According to the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum (SCER), some 1,536 candidates, representing 22 parties and independents, contested the elections. There were only 16 female candidates, the smallest percentage ever, even though female voters make up 45% of the registered electorate.

The main parties were President Ali Abdullah Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC), the opposition Yemeni Congregation for Reform (Islah) of the Speaker of Parliament and the Yemeni Socialist Party. In the outgoing assembly, the GPC had 226 seats, Islah 62, the opposition Nasserite party three seats and the Baath party two. Independents held eight seats while the Socialist Party had no representative.

The electoral campaign was overshadowed by the US-led war on Iraq, a factor which made the atmosphere not as exciting as in earlier elections. All political parties gave priority to the fight against terrorism, but with completely different approaches. The GPC declared its intention to continue cooperating with the United States and the rest of the world in the war against terrorism, while the Islah announced that combating terrorism should be discussed and approved by legislative institutions. During the campaign, the two main parties, GPC and Islah, threw mud at each other in the media. The Islah party accused the official media of distorting its reputation, while the newspaper close to the GPC even went so far as to name the Assahwa newspaper, close to Islah, as the Taliban-Yemen mouthpiece.

Advertisement agencies were employed for the first time to produce and hang thousands of banners and posters bearing slogans of all the various parties.

Before the elections, all 22 political parties had signed a code of conduct with the aim of stopping violence during the elections. Even though violent incidents were reported, there was less election violence than in previous polls held in this country, where many people carry arms (for example, 29 people were killed in fighting related to municipal elections in 2001).

Violence erupted in several places on polling day. At least fifteen people were shot and three polling stations closed by officials due to shootouts among rival parties. The violence occurred despite a 100,000-strong military presence deployed at polling stations across the country. The polls were supervised by 175 international observers and thousands of national monitors.

Final results indicated that the People's General Congress had retained its overwhelming majority after winning 238 seats, as against 46 seats for the opposition Yemeni Congregation for Reform (Islah), 8 for the Yemeni Socialist Party, and 4 for Independents. The Nasserite Unionist Popular Organisation obtained three seats, while the Arab Baath Socialist Party won the remaining two.

On 10 May 2003, the new Parliament convened its first meeting and re-elected Sheikh Abdullah bin Hussein Al-Ahmar as its Speaker.
Percentage of seats won by largest party or coalition: 79.1%

Parties or coalitions winning seats

Parties or coalitions winning seats
Political group	Total
General People's Congress (GPC)	238
Yemeni Congregation for Reform (Islah)	46
Yemeni Socialist Party	8
Independents	4
Nasserite Unionist Popular Organization	3
Arab Baath Socialist Party	2

Members elected, by sex

Number of men elected: 300
Number of women elected: 1
Percentage of women elected: 0.3%
Women Directly Elected: 1
Other notes on the elections: The House of Representatives, elected in April 2003, held its first session in May to serve a six-year term until May 2009. Elections were due at least 60 days before the end of that term (i.e. by March 2009).

Following the constitutional amendments of February 2009, the 2009 House of Representatives elections were postponed by two years to 2011.

Following political turmoil in 2011, in February 2012 the term of the House was extended by two more years to February 2014, then by another year to February 2015. In January 2014, the National Dialogue Conference (which was in charge of gathering opinion on the new Constitution) further extended the term of the House until the adoption of the new Constitution, which was expected to take place in the course of 2015. The country has been in a state of war since 2015.

The House of Representatives in Seiyun, which is affiliated with the UN-recognized Government in Aden, represents Yemen at the Inter-Parliamentary Union as of May 2021.

The current official seat of the House of Representatives is Aden. For security reasons, it currently meets in Seiyun.

According to the House of Representatives in Seiyun, 51 of the 301 members elected to the House of Representatives in 2003 – including the sole woman – had passed away by June 2021. As of 24 June 2021, there are 250 male members. This includes members based in Sana’a.
Sources: Yemen Times

House of Representatives (25.08.2016)

Permanent Mission in Geneva (24.06.2021)

New legislature

Total number of men after the election: 300
Total number of women after the election: 1
Percentage of women after the election: 0.3%
First-term parliamentarians: No information available
Percentage of first-term parliamentarians: No information available
Date of the first session: 10 May 2003

First Speaker of the new legislature

Personal details for the first Speaker of the new legislature: Sheikh Abdullah bin Hussein Al-Ahmar (Male)
Date of election: 10 May 2003