REPUBLIC OF YEMEN Official name: Al Jumhuriyah al-Yamaniyah (Republic of Yemen) Location: West Asia International organisations: The Arab League, The Non-Aligned Movement, The Organisation of Islamic Conference, The United Nations Borders: Oman, Saudi Arabia Coastline: Arabian Sea, Red Sea Land area: 527,970 Km2 Population: 18,700,000

Ethnicity: The population is almost entirely Arab, although many Yemenis are of part-African descent.
Languages: Arabic is the official language and is universally used.
Religion: Islam is the state religion. Almost the entire population are Sunni Moslems.
Form of government: Officially, a presidential democratic republic. An practice, an authoritarian regime with some cosmetic reforms. Yemen consists of 17 governorates.
Capital: Sanaa
Constitution: The Constitution of the Republic of Yemen came into effect on 16 May 1991. It was substantially amended in 1994 to create a presidential system of government.
Head of state: The President, elected by direct universal suffrage for a seven-year term. At the time of the last presidential election in 1999 the presidential term was five years. Its extension to seven years was approved by a referendum in 2001.
Head of government: The Prime Minister, appointed by the President and in practice accountable to him.
Legislature: Yemen has a bicameral legislature. The Assembly of Representatives (Majlis al-Nuwaab) has 301 members, elected for six-year terms from single-member constituencies. In 2001 an upper house, the Shura Council, was created, with 111 members appointed by the president.
Electoral authority: Elections are conducted by the government.
Freedom House rating: Political Rights 5, Civil Liberties 5

Political history

Yemen was an independent Imamate from ancient times, but from the 18th century it acknowledged a nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Sultan. In 1872 the Ottomans made this a real sovereignty by occupying the country, and annexing it outright in 1905. In 1839 the British occupied the port of Aden as a coaling station, and in 1873 they formally established the Aden Protectorate by agreement with the Ottomans. The rest of Yemen (commonly called North Yemen) became an independent kingdom in 1918.

In the 1960s there was violent conflict in both parts of Yemen. In the north a republican revolt fostered by Egypt led to civil war and the eventual overthrow of the monarchy: the Republic of Yemen was established in 1962. At the same time the British were faced with an insurrection in the south, which led in 1967 to the independence of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen under the Marxist Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (FLOSY). Both countries were authoritarian regimes.

In 1990 the collapse of Communism led to the reunification of the two halves of Yemen under President Saleh, who had been President of North Yemen since 1978. When the south Yemenis changed their minds in 1993, there was a brief civil war in which the south was crushed. Saleh then introduced a new constitution which concentrated power in his own hands behind a facade of democratic government.

In 1999 there was a presidential election in which Saleh polled 96% of the vote after the opposition party candidate was barred and the only "opposition" candidate to Saleh was a member of his own party. Although opposition parties are in theory tolerated, the media is tightly controlled and no real democratic reform seems likely.

Human Rights Watch's 2002 Report on Yemen boted that: "The security forces continued to exercise wide powers and to commit abuses, including arbitrary arrest, torture, and killings of civilians with virtual impunity. The press came under increasing pressure and the number of executions increased." Amnesty International's 2002 Report on Yemen noted that Saleh's government had used the pretext of fighting terrorism to tighten its grip over civil society and the harassment of opposition groups.

The dominant political party in Yemen is President Saleh's General People's Congress. The only significant opposition parties are the Islamist Yemeni Congregation for Reform and the extreme left-wing Nasserite Unionist People's Organisation.

The Yemen Gateway website gives useful commentary and links on Yemeni politics.