General People's Congress (Yemen)

☆ Save On Wikipedia ↗
General People's Congress
المؤتمر الشعبي العام
Chairperson (disputed)
SpokespersonAbdo al-Janadi
FounderAli Abdullah Saleh
Founded24 August 1982
(43 years, 312 days)
HeadquartersSanaa
NewspaperAl-Motamar
Ideology
Political position
House of Representatives
170 / 301
Party flag
Website
^ A: Islamism is also described as one of the key ideologies of the GPC[4]

The General People's Congress (GPC; Arabic: المؤتمر الشعبي العام) is a political party in Yemen. It has been the de jure ruling party of Yemen since 1993, three years after unification. The party is dominated by a nationalist line, and its official ideology is Arab nationalism, seeking Arab unity.

In the course of the Yemeni civil war, the party's founder and Leader, Ali Abdullah Saleh, was killed, while the GPC fractured into three factions backing different sides in the conflict.[13]

History

The party was established on 24 August 1982 in Sanaa, North Yemen, by President Ali Abdullah Saleh,[13][14] becoming an umbrella organisation that sought to represent all political interests.[15] Following Yemeni unification in 1990, and with Saleh continuing as president of the united country, it emerged as the largest party in the 1993 parliamentary elections, winning 123 of the 301 seats.[14] It went on to win a majority (187) of seats in the 1997 elections amidst a boycott by the Yemeni Socialist Party.

Saleh was re-elected as president in the first direct presidential elections in 1999, and the party won a landslide victory in the 2003 parliamentary elections, winning 226 of the 301 seats. Following the elections, several independent MPs also joined the party. Saleh was re-elected again in 2006. On 25 February 2012, he resigned from the presidency as a result of the Yemeni protests (2011-2012), and Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi of the same party was elected as his successor. Saleh attempted to regain power over the country and the GPC Party in the following 2014 civil war. Rallying a large part of the GPC in 2015, he sided with the Houthis and effectively split the party into a pro-Hadi and a pro-Saleh faction.[13]

The two factions were at war with each other until Saleh attempted to overthrow the Houthis. This power grab failed, however, and the former president, as well as party secretary general Aref al-Zouka, were killed in the Battle of Sanaa in late 2017. Following Ali Abdullah Saleh's death, the GPC fractured further, with a large part of the former Saleh followers pledging allegiance to the Houthis. This pro-Houthi part of the GPC continued to support the rebel government in Sanaa, and elected Sadeq Ameen Abu Rass as the new GPC chairman. One member of the pro-Houthi faction explained that "Ali Abdullah Saleh was killed by the Houthis. If we follow his direction and resist the Houthis, we will meet the same end as Saleh. So we prefer to support the strongest force on the ground."[13]

Another group of Saleh loyalists fled from the Houthis. Though this GPC faction then allied itself with Hadi and the Saudi Arabia-led international coalition, it still remained completely separate and chose Ali Abdullah Saleh's son, Ahmed Saleh, as new de facto leader. Meanwhile, the former president's nephew, Tareq Saleh, began to organize a new private army for this GPC faction.[13]

Electoral history

Presidential elections

Election Party candidate Votes % Result
1999 Ali Abdullah Saleh 3,584,399 96.2% Elected Green tickY
2006 4,149,673 77.2% Elected Green tickY
2012 Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi 6,621,921 100.0% Elected Green tickY

House of Representatives elections

Election Party leader Votes % Seats +/– Position Result
1993 Ali Abdullah Saleh 640,523 28.7%
123 / 301
 Increase 123 Increase 1st Minority government
1997 1,175,343 43.1%
187 / 301
 Increase 64 Steady 1st Majority government
2003 3,429,888 58.0%
226 / 301
 Increase 39 Steady 1st Supermajority government

See also

Notes

References

  1. Tawfeek al-Ganad (20 September 2022). "Weak and Divided, the General People's Congress Turns 40". Sana'a Center For Strategic Studies. Sanaa. Archived from the original on 26 February 2026. Retrieved 11 February 2023.
  2. "The General People's Congress in Ma'rib Governorate salutes its leadership, members and supporters on the 40th anniversary of its founding". Al-Methaq News (in Arabic). General People's Congress. 25 August 2022. Archived from the original on 11 February 2023. Retrieved 11 February 2023.
  3. "Yemeni party names new leader after Saleh killed". Reuters. 7 January 2018. Archived from the original on 2 March 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  4. Poirier, Marine (April 2011). "Performing Political Domination in Yemen. Narratives and Practices of Power in the General People's Congress". onlinelibrary.wiley.com. Wiley. pp. 202–227. doi:10.1111/j.1478-1913.2011.01353.x. Retrieved 4 June 2026.
  5. Matsumoto, Hiroshi. "Yemen between Democratization and Prolonged Power" (PDF). Japan Institute of International Affairs. Retrieved 5 June 2026.
  6. "From Power to Opposition, Coup and War: Transformations of the General People's Congress in 40 Years". Abaad Studies & Research Center. Retrieved 3 June 2026. The GPC comprised the various intellectual and political forces and currents in its ranks. Political pluralism was banned by the constitution at the time, so the GPC encompassed all clandestine currents that operated in secrecy. The GPC emerged as the ruling party, headed by President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who seized power in northern Yemen in July 1978. The GPC did not have any special organizational or ideological character. It served as a political umbrella for all political forces: Islamic, leftist and nationalist alike. In addition, the GPC included numerous independent figures, military leaders, tribal sheikhs and merchants who benefited from its broad and loose structure.
  7. Durac, Vincent (2011). "The Joint Meeting Parties and the Politics of Opposition in Yemen". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. pp. 343–365. Therefore, the GPC was not founded on ideology, or as a social movement with a broad grassroots basis, but as an instrument of regime-survival and patronage. Its membership base is highly diverse, comprising a disparate collection of individuals and groups, including Islamists, former socialists, tribal leaders, moderates and hard-line religious conservatives.37
  8. "Ali Abdullah Saleh, autocracy and neo-liberalism in Yemen". Deeproot Consulting. Retrieved 11 March 2025.
  9. Burrowes, Robert D. (2010). Historical Dictionary of Yemen. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 134.
  10. "The April 27, 2004 Parliamentary Elections in The Republic of Yemen" (PDF). ndi.org. National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. Retrieved 4 June 2026. The party currently holds 58.6 percent of the seats on the district councils and 58.45 percent of the seats on the governorate councils. As compared with Islah and the YSP, the GPC has the least defined political ideology, serving more as an umbrella for diverse interests than as an ideologically coherent party. Tribal figures have a strong hand in the party.
  11. Ardemagni, Eleonora; Al-Hamdani, Raiman (26 March 2021). "Yemen: The Gpc and Islah After 2011 | ISPI". ispionline.it. Retrieved 4 June 2026.
  12. Burrowes, p111
  13. "Death of a leader: Where next for Yemen's GPC after murder of Saleh?". Middle East Eye. 23 January 2018. Archived from the original on 5 November 2018. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  14. Al Yemeni, Ahmed A. Hezam (2003). The Dynamic of Democratisation – Political Parties in Yemen (PDF). Toennes Satz + Druck GmbH. ISBN 3-89892-159-X. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 October 2021. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  15. Frank Tachau (1994) Political parties of the Middle East and North Africa, Greenwood Press, p633