May 05, 2014
On March
8, interim Yemeni President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi announced the formation of
the Constitution
Drafting Committee (CDC), which has been highly
controversial within the Yemeni political scene. Several political groups,
including the Socialist Party, independent youth organizations, and members of
the Islah Party are protesting their lack of representation in the CDC, while
others object to the committee’s overall composition, arguing that its members
have virtually no expertise in the federalist system model that Yemen aspires
to adopt.
In his
announcement, Hadi specified that the CDC would have seventeen members; this
contradicts the agreement reached by the nation-building team
at the National Dialogue Conference, which recommended that the CDC be
comprised of 30 members selected according to their area of expertise. However,
the National Dialogue Conference Consensus Committee, which represented all the
factions in the dialogue, reduced the number of CDC members without any
explanation. Currently, only one of these members has experience in
constitutional law, but lacks the requisite ten years in the field. The other
members have assorted specializations, some of which are unrelated to the
constitution. Yet Hadi’s decision was not only heavily criticized for not
having the CDC meet standards of legal expertise, but also for not representing
the same spectrum of movements as the National Dialogue Conference did. The one
group that is better represented in the CDC is women, of which there are four
on the seventeen-member committee.
Youth
groups, meanwhile, feel marginalized after having proposed specific
representatives as specified in the National Dialogue Memorandum that was
signed by Hadi on November 21. They were unpleasantly surprised when none of
these nominees were selected for the CDC—as they noted in their statement following
the announcement of its formation. Seeing as the composition of the CDC
combines technocratic and partisan aspects, there are concerns that the members
will remain loyal to the parties they represent—particularly Islah and General
People’s Congress. Other parties, not well represented on the CDC, are also
concerned. The Socialist Party, with only one representative, and the southern
secessionist faction headed by Ali Salem al-Beidh argue that the CDC’s
formulation is a move to bypass their proposals altogether.
A key
feature of the Yemeni state envisioned by the National Dialogue Conference is
the presidential federalist system. Building a presidential system would
require curbing the president’s powers by removing financial powers from his
control, making it a prerogative of the federal legislative branch. The CDC
would also need to formulate constitutional articles outlining the federal
state and the relationship between the center and the regions in several areas,
most importantly the judiciary, public revenue and its redistribution, and
concession contracts for mineral extraction. This question has been of concern
for many in Yemen’s political elite, who have cautioned the CDC to choose its
wording carefully. With insufficient expertise in constitutional law among CDC
members—and the relative lack of input from key groups and parties—these
necessary articles may not curb presidential authority enough to allow for the
federalist system in Yemen.
President
Hadi granted the CDC one year to finish its job, with the possibility of
further extensions if need be, whereas the original National Dialogue
Conference proposal had limited this period to only six months. This move is
widely interpreted as a way for Hadi to extend Yemen’s interim period and
remain in power longer than originally envisioned. Giving credence to this
interpretation is the fact that Hadi has given the CDC the power to supervise a
constitutional referendum and organize campaigns to educate Yemenis about the
constitution. The CDC will present a draft of the constitution for review and
discussion to the National
Oversight Agency, a body that is mandated to implement the outputs
of the National Dialogue Conference and whose members are scheduled to be
announced in the near future. The chair of the constitutional committee in
parliament, Ali Abu Haliqa, has said that given the enormity of the CDC’s task, there
is no chance that it will not have its timeframe extended—especially after the
CDC was assigned further tasks, including preparing laws on the federal
regions. However, a prolonged constitutional drafting process could plunge
Yemen into a legislative void, generating uncertainty about a range of
issues.
The naming
of CDC members has clearly taken on considerations unrelated to the
constitutional drafting process. This could have been avoided by restricting
membership to constitutional experts and politicians in the National Oversight
Agency. Yemenis hope that the new constitution will meet their aspirations and
put a decisive end to the uncertainty that has paralyzed the country
politically and economically. The CDC will need to preserve a fragile unity
between the diverse components of the Yemeni population, which it cannot do
without ensuring that all voices have a say in Yemen’s next constitution.
This
article is reprinted with permission from Sada. It can be accessed online
at:
http://carnegieendowment.org/sada/2014/05/02/yemen-s-fraught-constitution-drafting-committee/h9ti
Ashraf Al-Falahi is a Sana’a-based Yemeni journalist.
This article was translated from Arabic.