Presidential elections were held in

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

on 20 September 2006, alongside local elections. Incumbent president

Ali Abdullah Saleh Ali Abdullah Saleh al-Ahmar (, ''ʿAlī ʿAbdullāh Ṣāliḥ al-Aḥmar;'' 21 March 1947There is a dispute as to Saleh's date of birth, some saying that it was on 21 March 1942. See: However, by Saleh's own confession, he was born in 1947 al ...

of the General People's Congress received 77% of the vote, defeating opposition coalition candidate

Faisal Bin Shamlan Faisal Othman Bin Shamlan (1934 – 1 January 2010) (فيصل عثمان بن شملان) (faiṣal bin šamlān) was a Yemeni intellectual, technocrat, political reformist and public figure. He was a Yemeni member of parliament who had held ...

Campaign

Saleh had been president of modern

since its

reunification A political union is a type of political entity which is composed of, or created from, smaller polities, or the process which achieves this. These smaller polities are usually called federated states and federal territories in a federal governm ...

in 1990, and had previously been president of the

Yemen Arab Republic The Yemen Arab Republic (YAR; ar, الجمهورية العربية اليمنية '), also known simply as North Yemen or Yemen (Sanaʽa), was a country from 1962 to 1990 in the northwestern part of what is now Yemen.The United States extend ...

from 1978 to 1990. He became Yemen's first directly elected president in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, winning more than 96% of the vote. On 17 July 2005, Saleh announced that he would not run for presidency in the 2006, later reconfirming his decision on 21 June 2006 when addressing fellow party members. 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 However, while addressing tens of thousands of supporters in Sana'a on 24 June 2006, Saleh rescinded his earlier decision stating "I comply with the people's pressure and upon the people's desire; I will run in the coming polls."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. The Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) opposition coalition was formed in 2002 by

al-Islah Islah or Al-Islah is an Arabic word usually translated as "reform", in the sense of "to improve, to better, to correct something and removing vice or to put something into a better position." Islah may also refer to: People *Islah Jad (born 1951), ...

, the

Yemeni Socialist Party The Yemeni Socialist Party ( ar, الحزب الاشتراكي اليمني, ''al-Hizb al-Ishtiraki al-Yamani'', YSP) is a political party in Yemen. A successor of Yemen's National Liberation Front, it was the ruling party in South Yemen until ...

, the Party of Truth, the Unionist party, and the Popular Forces Union. On 2 July 2006

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

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.

Conduct

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 Lahij or Lahej ( ar, لحج, Laḥj, links=no), also called al-Hawtah, is a city and an area located between Ta'izz and Aden in Yemen. From the 18th to the 20th century, its rulers were of the Abdali branch of the Al-Sallami tribe who trace t ...

. 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

. The stadium exceeded its capacity of around 10,000 with a crowd that included government workers and students brought in on government buses. Election day was marked by some violence; according to the opposition, eight people died in clashes."Yemen president leads vote count"
BBC News, 21 September 2006. Khaled Hassan, an opposition Nasserist candidate running in the municipal elections, was killed in a clash with ruling party supporters in

Taiz Taiz ( ar, تَعِزّ, Taʿizz) is a city in southwestern Yemen. It is located in the Yemeni Highlands, near the port city of Mocha on the Red Sea, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is the capital of Taiz Governorate. With a popula ...

province.

Results

Election officials said that about five million people voted out of around 9.2 million eligible voters. 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 The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

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. 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. Final results on 23 September showed Saleh with 77.2% of the vote and Bin Shamlan with 21.8%. 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."Saleh sworn in for another term"
, ''Gulf Times'' (Qatar), 28 September 2006.

References

{{Yemeni elections Presidential elections in Yemen

Presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pre ...