General Elections and Referendum Law THE GENERAL ELECTIONS AND REFERENDUM LAW NO. ( ) 2001 OF THE REPUBLIC OF YEMEN Part One Operational Definitions & Voting Rights Section One Definition of Terms Article (1): This Law shall be called the General Elections & Referendum Law. Article (2): For the purpose of this Law, the following words and expressions shall have the following meanings unless the context dictates otherwise: (a) Republic: The Republic of Yemen; (b) Citizen: Every Yemeni national (male or female); (c) Voter: Every citizen entitled to vote in any general elections and/or referendum in accordance with the Constitution and the provisions of this Law; (d) Voting domicile: The usual place of residence of a person or the place where this person has his/her main business or the place of residence of his/her family even if the said person does not live in such a place; (e) General elections: The direct means for people to exercise their right to elect the President of the Republic and to designate their representatives in Parliament and/or Local Councils through direct and free elections and by means of secret balloting; (f) Supreme Committee: The Elections and Referendum Supreme Committee; (g) Supreme Committee’s General Secretariat: The Administrative, Financial & Technical Apparatus of the Supreme Committee; (h) Branch Offices of the General Secretariat: All administrative units formed by the Supreme Committee in the Capital City Municipality and at the centers of other Governorates to undertake administrative tasks and responsibilities in accordance with the provisions of this Law and its Executive Order; (i) Voter Registers’ Committees: The Main Committee and the Branch Committees in charge of establishing the registers featuring the names and particulars of voters. This includes reviewing and making copies of the said registers all in accordance with provisions of this Law; (j) Supervisory Committees: The committees formed by the Supreme Committee in each Governorate in order to supervise the work of other elections subcommittees; (k) Election Committees: The Main Committee and Subcommittees formed by the Supreme Committee for the sole purpose of administering the whole elections processes including balloting, vote-counting and declaration of results at each constituency level; (l) First Sub-committee: The core committee at any electoral center. The same committee also acts as the main committee at district electoral levels; (m) Constituency: An area which is part of the electoral districts of the Republic where citizens exercise their right to vote in accordance with the Constitution and the provisions of this Law and other applicable laws; (n) Electoral Center: A sub-division at the constituency level where eligible voters exercise their right to vote in any general elections and/or referendum; (o) Electoral District: The core electoral units which constitute an electoral center within any given constituency. Voter Registers at electoral district levels shall be deemed official registers for local, parliamentary and presidential elections and/or public referenda; (p) Electoral final register: The officially announced lists of eligible voters. These lists are final and irrevocable; (q) Balloting: The direct means for voters to express their opinion(s) in any general elections and/or referendum; (r) General referendum: The direct means to solicit public opinion about any subject and/or issue through a general referendum to be called upon by the President in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution; (s) Proportionate majority: The relative majority of valid votes in any general elections; (t) Absolute majority: More than half the number of votes in any general elections; (u) By-laws: All Executive Orders linked up to this Law; (v) Supplementary elections: Complementary elections conducted in one or more electoral center(s) at any constituency level where the results of the general elections are declared null or where elections are prematurely terminated; (w) By-elections: A special election to replace a politician who has left Parliament or the Local Council as a result of resignation, death and/or appointment to a public office other than the Council of Ministers. Part One: Section Two Voting Rights Article (3): All citizens who have attained (18) complete calendar years are entitled to vote except naturalized persons who have not completed the cool-off period required by Law following naturalization. Article (4): (a) All voters exercise their voting rights in the constituency they have their domicile address. If a person has more than one domicile address, s/he shall be required to decide the domicile where s/he wishes to vote. In any event, no person may be allowed to register in more than one electoral center. A voter may only be allowed to exercise his/her right to vote in the electoral center in which s/he is registered. (b) A voter may have the right to change his/her domicile address and opt for another one within the options available for each voter in accordance with the provisions of this Law. In such instances, a voter shall be required to submit an application to this effect to the applicable election committee within whose jurisdiction the new domicile address falls. The Voter Registration Card shall be attached to the said application. Following this, the election committee referred to above shall be required to enter the voter’s name into its registers providing that all legal requirements are fulfilled. Accordingly, the Supreme Committee shall be informed and shall be required to relay such information, in due course, to the applicable election committee within whose jurisdiction the former domicile address falls. The committee shall then be required to delete the said voter’s name from its registers before the publication of the Final Voters’ Register in accordance with the provisions of Article (13) of this Law. No committee shall have the right to register any voter on relocation grounds before a lapse of at least (6) months following the submission of an application for registration. (c) All election committees shall be required to forward to the Supreme Committee all changes in voter registers due to relocations on the next day following the deadline for voter registration. The Supreme Committee shall – in turn – relay such information to all concerned authorities within (7) days following the closure of registration. Election committees shall then be required to delete (where appropriate) relocated voters’ names from their registers. (d) Any person who has deliberately and knowingly caused his/her name to be listed in voter registers using more than one domicile address in clear violation of the provisions of Article (13) of this Law – shall be punishable in compliance with the provisions of Article (133) of this Law and the penalties stipulated thereof. (e) No person shall be forced to accept a specific domicile address or to vote against his/her wish in favor of a designated candidate. Any person (from the military or civil service) who may have abused power and authority to influence the opinion of any given voter – shall be punishable in accordance with the provisions of Article (133) of this Law. Such a person may also be removed from office. Article (5): For purposes appertaining to presidential elections and/or public referenda, the Republic of Yemen shall be deemed as one constituency. Eligible voters in possession of proof of identity (i.e. valid ID., Voter Registration Card, and/or any official document with personal photograph attached to it) shall have the right to vote at any electoral center. The Supreme Committee shall take appropriate measures to guarantee the right to vote to all eligible voters. Article (6): (a) Yemeni citizens living abroad whose names are duly entered in the electoral final register and who are in possession of a Voter Registration Card – may be allowed to vote at any Yemeni embassy and/or consulate overseas. The Supreme Committee shall take appropriate measures to ensure implementation of this Clause in view of embassy circumstances in each country. (b) Elections may not be administered at a Yemeni embassy and/or consulate unless the quorum of (500) eligible voters with valid Voter Registration Cards is met. Article (7): The Supreme Committee shall take all appropriate measures to encourage women to exercise their voting rights by forming Women Committees to undertake the tasks of registration and identity verification of women voters in district and electoral centers at each individual constituency. Article (8): Each eligible voter shall have one vote and may not be allowed to cast his/her vote more than once during the same electoral round. Part Two Voter Registers Article (9): (a) Each constituency shall have a permanent voters’ register prepared by the Main Committee and other sub-committees. The scope of jurisdiction and offices of these committees shall be determined by the Supreme Committee. The said committees shall exercise their duties in accordance with the provisions of this Law and other relevant By-laws and Executive Orders. (b) Sub-committees shall be required to submit to the Main Committee the registers of all eligible voters in each constituency to be incorporated in the permanent voters’ register of the said constituency. Registers shall be duly signed by the head and members of each committee. Article (10): The voter registers in each constituency shall include detailed listing of particulars of all citizens – (i.e. name, surname, profession, date of birth, domicile address, etc.) – who on January first of each year would have become constitutionally eligible to exercise their voting rights. Voters may not be allowed to register in more than one constituency. Article (11): Voters’ Registration Committees shall be held responsible for verifying the identity of each voter to ensure that s/he has attained the legal age. This may be ascertained by means of a proper ID. card or any statement or testimony issued by a local official on condition that a personal photograph is attached to such a statement or testimony.