The parliamentary elections held on 27 April 1997 constitute the second parliamentary democratic elections witnessed by Yemen since the re-unification in 1990. Despite all challenges that these elections faced since in their first stages, its founding at the specified time and its operation the way it did (in terms of registration candidacy, and voting), combined with the electoral process administration and the local and international supervision it received represented an advanced step that is considered in the interest of the democratic orientation in Yemenand in which the following parties participated: The National Congress Party, the Reform Party, the Nasserite Wahdawi, the Haqq, the Arab Baath, the National Baath, the Democratic Nasserite, the Nasserite Correction, the National Front, the Liberation Front, the National Social Party, and the Guild.

The Conference Party won the largest percentage followed by the Reform, the Nasserite, Wahdawi, the Arab Baath with a large difference in addition to independent candidates who also and mainly belong to the Congress Party followed by the Reform Party.

After the parliament’s formation, a number of independent parliament members announced their joining the Congress and Reform parties, which led to the rise in the number of seats to 220 for the Congress and 64 for the Reform while independent seats declined to only 10 .

1- The Parliament’s Parliamentary Performance
Regarding this council’s parliamentary performance, it may be said that with regard to the legislative aspect, the council achieved many laws. Yet this achievement is considered minor compared to that made by the government through presidential decrees. For one time only, the government issued 26 decretal laws in one month during the parliament’s leave. On objectively assessing the council’s role regarding legislations that are issued by decrees, we note that its role has often been weak despite the fact that its constitutional privileges authorize it to accept or reject laws though it has not rejected any law. Before this legislative grandeur of the executive power, there are important laws that the council did not address such as the law of maritime administration and the law regulating the carrying of arms .

A- An Evaluative Overview of the Yemeni Parliaments’ Legislative Performance
The following remarks, some positive and others negative, may be said of the Yemeni parliaments’ experience since unification:
- That the Yemeni experience in democracy since unification is progressing through quick steps according to all indicators, specially against the background of circumstances in the country’s two divisions since the sixties. It may also be said that the Yemeni parliament’s current role was formed by the northern heritage rather than the southern one .
- Despite the fact that politics in Yemen remains informal to a high degree, negotiation and discussion of principal topics are often held in the parliament’s arena. Even agreements reached outside the parliament are ratified through it .
- The parliament—particularly during the transitional period or that immediately following it—continued in a state of disturbance and uncertainty of vision regarding its means for confronting the political and economic dilemmas and challenges that concurred with unification. It is also known that at the heart of the work of parliament members is reaching clear concepts of the country’s interest and of the means of achieving them. This can be attributed to the condition of the council in that period and to the standard of membership in it (which had relatively improved in the 1997 parliament), the low rate of qualified cadres inside it, and its members’ arrogance toward and avoidance of resorting the aid of specialists despite the fact that this resort is a right according to the by-laws . This is what makes visible—according to one of the source—the sometimes low standard of deliberations the parliament hall and is reflected in the low standard of discussion. This low level results from the small number of qualified cadres in addition to members’ frequent absence and specialized committees’ irregular meetings. When these committees do meet, this happens on short notice. Another factor is conflicts between party members .

Party representatives’ loss of faith in the Yemeni parliament, which emerges from time to time as happened in 1995 when the belief prevailed among opposition party members that the king caused the destruction of the new voting mechanism to become capable of forging the number of voters when relying on traditional ways of counting .

The insufficiency of equipment and tools special to the parliament, such as meeting halls, security, office equipment, computer systems, parliament library, assistant body and all other facilities that help improve performance.