Before the Yemeni Revolution in 2011 and the following

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

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 north and Oman to the northeast and ...

was a one party dominant state in which the General People's Congress (GPC) held power.

Legal status

Yemen's Political Parties Law mandates that political parties be viable national organizations comprising at least 75 founders and 2,500 members and not restrict membership to a particular region.Country profile: Yemen

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

Federal Research Division The Federal Research Division (FRD) is the research and analysis unit of the United States Library of Congress. The Federal Research Division provides directed research and analysis on domestic and international subjects to agencies of the Unit ...

(August 2008). The government provides financial support to political parties, including a stipend for newspaper publication.

Elections 2003–2006

The GPC captured 238 of 301 seats in parliament in the 2003 elections. In the September 2006 elections for local and governorate councils, the GPC garnered 315 seats in the governorates (74 percent of the popular vote) and 5,078 local council seats (74 percent of the popular vote). In the September 2006 presidential election, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) backed opposition candidate Faisal bin Shamlan, whose success in garnering 22 percent of the popular vote was viewed at the time as a first step in challenging the political stronghold of President Saleh and the GPC. However, disputes between the GPC and the JMP in 2007 over election law amendments, coupled with the JMP’s opposition to President Saleh’s proposed democratic reform measures, have halted initial attempts to forge a dialogue between the two parties.

List of parties

For the sake of clarity, this section is divided into three lists. These are major parties, minor parties and defunct parties. Major parties are defined as parties which gained a seat in the last elections in 2003. Since there has been a long time without elections with a lot of political shift in between, parties that either control territory with their armed wing (such as Ansar Allah) or have over 10.000 likes on facebook are also taken into this category. All other operating parties are listed under minor parties. Parties that are long inactive are listed as defunct, although some might be revived at some point.

Major parties

Minor parties

Defunct parties

List of coalitions

*The National Council for the Forces of the Peaceful Revolution was declared on 17 August 2011, amidst the Yemeni Revolution, to unite the opposition groups, parties, coalitions, and youth protesters. Among the 143 representatives elected to sit on it are leaders from

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

South Yemen Movement The Southern Movement ( ''al-Ḥirāk al-Janūbiyy''), sometimes known as the Southern Separatist Movement, or South Yemen Movement, or Aden Movement, and colloquially known as al-Hirak, is a political movement and paramilitary organization act ...

, the Alliance of Yemeni Tribes, and the defected First Armoured Division. **The Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) was formed in 2005 by five opposition parties to effect political and economic reform. It includes the northern-based, tribal, and Islamist-oriented Yemeni Congregation for Reform (Islah) and the secular Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP), which represents the remnants of the former South Yemeni leadership. According to ''

Al Jazeera English Al Jazeera English (AJE; ar, الجزيرة‎, translit=al-jazīrah, , literally "The Peninsula", referring to the Qatar Peninsula) is an international 24-hour English-language news channel owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which is o ...

'', it was formed in 2002 and includes Islah, Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP), Hizb Al-Haq (a semi-religious party), the Unionist party, and the Popular Forces Union party. The spokesperson as of 23 March 2011 is Muhammad Qahtan, who replaced Mohammed Al-Sabri. **The Common Forum includes the five biggest opposition groups in Yemen, including Reform, Socialist, Nasserist, Popular Force and al-Haq.Yemeni police struggle to break up clashing protesters
'' Al Arabiya News Channel'', 14 February 2011 (Likely just another name for the JMP.)

References

{{Asia topic, List of political parties in

Political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...