Yemeni presidential election, 1999

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Yemen
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Direct Presidential elections were held in Yemen for the first time on 23 September, 1999. Candidates had to be approved by at least 10% of MPs; however, in practice this meant that only two parties, the ruling General People's Congress and the Yemeni Congregation for Reform had enough seats to nominate their candidates. In the end, the Yemeni Congregation for Reform backed the GPC's candidate, incumbent President Ali Abdullah Saleh rather than running a candidate of their own.

[edit] Nominations

Nominations for presidential candidates closed on July 13, 1999. In total, 31 candidates put their names forward, though three of them were disqualified immediately for failing to meet the legal requirements. The full list is as follows: ^[1]

Ali Abdullah Saleh (General People's Congress, Islah, National Opposition Council)
Ali Salih 'Ubad Muqbil (parties of the Supreme Co-ordination Council for the Opposition)
Abd al-Quwi Ahmad Hamoud Shuwi'a (People's Democratic Party)
Al-Habbani Muhammad abd al-Malik Nu'man al-'Abassi (Yemeni Popular Unity Party)
Ali bin Ali Sabihi
Muhammad Muhammad Hizam al-Yamani
Amin Ahmad Thabit
Abd al-Wahhab Muhammad Hassan al-Karidi
Abdullah Salih Salih al-Bakhiti
Muhammad Ahmad Sa'ad al-Dhufari
Faisal Ali Ahmad Ghaaithan al-Tawil
Salih Hassan Abdullah al-'Azani
Abd al-Malik Yahya Ahmad Hanash
Ahmad Ali Hussein Yahya al-'Amri
Muhammad A'id Qa'id al-'Uthmali
Ali Salih al-Houri
Muhammad Ali Muhsin al-Sirri
Salih Ahmad bin Ahmad Jubah
Muhammad Hussein al-Jamuzi
Ali Abdullah Salih Muhsin Suroub
Abd al-Wahhab Qanaf Sha'if
Mustafa Youssef Khalil
Iskandar Ali al-Nathari
Mustafa Ali Naji 'Aiyash
Ahmad Muslih al-Barti
Ma'adh Abdullah al-Shahani
Ahmad Abduh al-Ramim
Najeeb Qahtan Al-Sha'abi - (MP for the General People's Congress, running as an Independent)

The following were disqualified (reason):

Amin Ahmad bin Ahmad Thabit (candidates must not be married to a foreigner and he had a Russian wife)
Abdullah Salih Salih Muhsin Surub (minimum age is 40, he was 38)
A candidate with a name too similar to President Saleh

The parliamentary vetting committeee eliminated another four candidates, putting 24 of the 31 nominations to a parliamentary vote, in which a candidate required 31 votes to be able to run in the election. Another candidate, Khalid al-Zarraka, did not appear on the publicised list of nominations, but was included in the parliamentary vote. In the vote itself, 21 of the 25 (including al-Zarraka) did not receive any support.

Candidate	Votes
Ali Abdullah Saleh	182
Najeeb Qahtan Al-Sha'abi	39

Khalid al-Zarraka	25
Ali Salih 'Ubad Muqbil	7

Thus only two candidates managed to obtain approval from MPs; President Saleh and Najeeb Qahtan Al-Sha'abi, a member of Saleh's party running as an independent.