A referendum for the new Yemeni constitution will be held on 15 October, the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum (SCER) has announced.
Judge Abdulmon’m Al-Eryani, the head of the Media and Elector Awareness Sector of the SCER told Yemen Times that the scheduling of the referendum is conditional on the progress of the National Dialogue Conference (NDC). SCER has informed various political parties and groups participating in the drafting of the constitution to start finalizing their work, Al-Eryani said.
Since the launch of the conference on March 18, participants representing different parties and interests have been working to formulate a new constitution under the supervision of French constitutional experts, according to official sources.
The referendum will follow the Gulf Initiative implementation mechanism, said Al-Eryani. The committee is currently studying and approving several programs necessary for preparing the referendum process.
SCER implemented a test-run for the electronic registration system last week. Three international companies competed to provide the technology under the supervision of professors and students from the computer science department at Sana’a University. Two-hundred-and-ten male and female students from Rabeah Al-Adwiah and Baghdad Schools participated in the trial-run.
An evaluation committee composed of SCER, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and UN Electoral Support, has recorded the evaluations and comments of the computer science students and faculty of Sana’a University, along with responses to those comments and evaluations by the three international companies bidding for the contract to provide the technology.
A contract will be signed with the winning company in the beginning of July, Al-Dini said.
by:Mohammed al-Hassani
