President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi has announced the secretary general for the upcoming National Dialogue Conference (NDC)  as Dr. Ahmed Awadh Mubark.

Mubark is the head of the Business department at in the College of Commerce at Sana’a University.   

 Afrah Abdulaziz Saleh and Yasser Abdullah Al-Ruaini, were announced as the deputy general secretaries.  

With leadership positions now determined, the Technical Committee (TC) of the NDC decided on Monday to extend the deadline for the receipt of political parties’ lists of the representatives. The new deadline is Monday.

The extension was provided in line with a previous extension for receiving application forms from independent youth, civil society organizations (CSOs) and women.

According to a recent report, over 3,618 applications have been received, including 2,047 forms from youth, 800 from women, 771 submitted by CSOs, a press statement released by the TC said.  The report also revealed that very few people from the South have applied.

According to a committee member, the conference will be held at the Movenpick Hotel in  Sana’a, with side meetings being held in different governorates and also abroad.

Yemenis have diverse viewpoints in terms of the success of the National Dialogue. Some are optimistic, and others less so.

Ali Al-Awar, a local from Hajja, said the National Dialogue is the sole gateway out of Yemen’s current situation.  It is the only option to avoid civil strife,  he said, adding the failure of dialogue will drag the country into more problems.

Fares Al-Sharei, an Ibb local, said he is optimistic the dialogue will succeed.

“Yemenis are endowed with wisdom. And the dialogue is a collective responsibility. Therefore, the dialogue stakeholders should be honest to move Yemen ahead,” he said.

Al-Sharei went on to say that the dialogue participants should make concessions for the sake of the country and people in order to protect national unity.

Abdu Rahman Al-Fahd, a resident in Dale in Southern Yemen, said he doesn’t pin any hope on the National Dialogue because the situation in Yemen is subject to foreign agendas.

The Yemeni political powers attempt to appear strong though they depend on external powers, he said, concluding that political parties think that the solution lies in drawing loyalties.