27 February 2014
President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi on Tuesday urged the government to prioritize the creation of a civil registry body. The entity would be responsible for the issuing of identification numbers to all Yemeni citizens and would gather and record other important demographic data.
Yemen is the only country in the region that does not have such a registry.
This poses several obstacles to the government implementation of development projects, said Dr. Ahmed Sinan, a professor of political sociology at Hodeida University.
"Public education, health and electricity projects don't meet people's needs because of the lack [of accurate information that a civil registry would provide]," he said.
Sinan went on to say, "for example, the School Textbook Printing Authority faces difficulty each year when preparing school textbooks for students due to the lack of a civil registry that would provide an estimated number of students."
"Yemen without a civil registry is like a company that can't determine its budget due to a lack of a database," Sinan added.
"It is shameful that a country with a large population like Yemen still lacks a civil registry....," said President Hadi in a speech at a conference on Tuesday.
The state-run Saba News Agency quoted President Hadi as saying, "An ID number system will resolve several of our security, administrative and financial problems and will ensure the integrity of elections..."
Hadi ordered the government to seek funding for the project and to finalize a plan for a registry that adheres to high standards of transparency and efficiency.
According to the Gulf Cooperation Council's (GCC) Initiative, following the one-candidate presidential election in February 2012 that put Hadi in office, a new electronic registration system was slated to be created.
Judge Abdulmon'm Al-Eryani, the head of the Media and Elector Awareness Sector of the Commission for Elections and Referendum, told the Yemen Times that they have finalized several technical aspects related to the electronic voter registration system.
The director of the Electoral Commission Information Department, Waleed Al-Hamadi, said the commission will share information from its database--including the name, educational qualifications and residence of each voter--with the Civil Registration Authority for its use in establishing the Civil Registry.
"An individual's electoral number will be used as his [federal] ID number and also as a job number in the future," Al-Hamadi said.
On July 16, 2013, President Hadi issued a decree to allow for the establishment of an electronic voter registration system.
Colonel Ahmed Ghaleb Hassaan, director of the Personal Data Department in the Civil Registration Authority, told the Yemen Times that the authority faces several obstacles in creating the system. Among these problems is a lack of enforcement of the Civil Registry Law. The law states that all births, deaths, marriages and divorces should be reported. However, this rarely happens, particularly in remote areas, due to the lack of a national strategy, the authority said.
"Parents don't usually go to the authority's branches to register their newborns," Hassaan said.
President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi on Tuesday urged the government to prioritize the creation of a civil registry body. The entity would be responsible for the issuing of identification numbers to all Yemeni citizens and would gather and record other important demographic data.
Yemen is the only country in the region that does not have such a registry.
This poses several obstacles to the government implementation of development projects, said Dr. Ahmed Sinan, a professor of political sociology at Hodeida University.
"Public education, health and electricity projects don't meet people's needs because of the lack [of accurate information that a civil registry would provide]," he said.
Sinan went on to say, "for example, the School Textbook Printing Authority faces difficulty each year when preparing school textbooks for students due to the lack of a civil registry that would provide an estimated number of students."
"Yemen without a civil registry is like a company that can't determine its budget due to a lack of a database," Sinan added.
"It is shameful that a country with a large population like Yemen still lacks a civil registry....," said President Hadi in a speech at a conference on Tuesday.
The state-run Saba News Agency quoted President Hadi as saying, "An ID number system will resolve several of our security, administrative and financial problems and will ensure the integrity of elections..."
Hadi ordered the government to seek funding for the project and to finalize a plan for a registry that adheres to high standards of transparency and efficiency.
According to the Gulf Cooperation Council's (GCC) Initiative, following the one-candidate presidential election in February 2012 that put Hadi in office, a new electronic registration system was slated to be created.
Judge Abdulmon'm Al-Eryani, the head of the Media and Elector Awareness Sector of the Commission for Elections and Referendum, told the Yemen Times that they have finalized several technical aspects related to the electronic voter registration system.
The director of the Electoral Commission Information Department, Waleed Al-Hamadi, said the commission will share information from its database--including the name, educational qualifications and residence of each voter--with the Civil Registration Authority for its use in establishing the Civil Registry.
"An individual's electoral number will be used as his [federal] ID number and also as a job number in the future," Al-Hamadi said.
On July 16, 2013, President Hadi issued a decree to allow for the establishment of an electronic voter registration system.
Colonel Ahmed Ghaleb Hassaan, director of the Personal Data Department in the Civil Registration Authority, told the Yemen Times that the authority faces several obstacles in creating the system. Among these problems is a lack of enforcement of the Civil Registry Law. The law states that all births, deaths, marriages and divorces should be reported. However, this rarely happens, particularly in remote areas, due to the lack of a national strategy, the authority said.
"Parents don't usually go to the authority's branches to register their newborns," Hassaan said.
© Yemen Times 2014
