Yemen’s Houthis give cabinet seats to southerners

AL-MUKALLA, Yemen: Houthi rebels in Yemen have officially announced that they will not be part of the new government, as the establishment parties continue to lock horns over the distribution of ministries.

Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the leader of the group, said on Friday in a televised speech that the group would relinquish their seats to the southerners.

"We will not take part in the government. We will place our seats [in the cabinet] at the disposal of our brothers in the south," he said.

The Houthis - also locally known as Ansar Allah - sparked massive rallies on 18 August in the capital Sana’a, demanding that the government resign over its economic polices. The rebels faced little resistance from armed men and some army units when they grabbed government and military buildings in the capital on 21 September, pushing President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to sign a peace deal.

While critics have accused the Houthis of holding the state hostage, Ali al-Gohoum, a spokesperson for the Houthis, told Middle East Eye that the group's stand about participating in the new government has not changed since day one of their uprising.

"We have said from the onset that we are not dominating any person for the cabinet," Gohoum said.

This contradicts media reports, issued last week, which claimed that the main proposal envisioned giving six seats to the Houthis and six to the southern secessionists. The General People's Congress - the party of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh – and the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), an umbrella of opposition groups that dominated the old government, were to get nine each, al-Jazeera reported.

The Houthis however, are now refuting these rumours and are justifying their position by saying that their "revolution" was aimed at overthrowing the "corrupt" government, not replacing it.

But analysts and commentators disagree about the rebels’ real reasons for not taking part in the government, with some suggesting that the Houthis might be stepping back because they’re frightened of failure.

"They know that those who will take charge of the government at this critical moment are at risk of failure," Jamal Amer, the editor of the weekly al-Wasat newspaper, told MEE. 

Bone of contention

The Houthis are now in such a position that they can flex their political muscle and at least partially achieve many of their objectives, without necessarily submitting themselves to the pitfalls of government.

When Ahmed Bin Mubarak was appointed prime minister in early October, the Houthis successfully vetoed his appointment and successfully lobbied to have Khaled Bahah - Yemen's former oil and energy minister and United Nations envoy - named instead.

Despite refusing to nominate representatives, the Houthis reignited long-standing rivalries between large parties in the country when they said that the distribution of ministries would not be based on quotas which have been in place since 2011.

Under the Peace and National Partnership deal that was approved by all political parties in the country on 21 September, each political party will nominate appropriate figures for the cabinet.

Bahah said on his Facebook page that the prospective ministers should be above 30, have a degree, be neutral, competent, and committed to rule of law and human rights. The designate prime minster has now revealed that there will now be three nominees for each ministry and that the president would be required to choose the best candidate.

But some parties who signed the deal said that his process could give more seats to certain parties.  The JMP - a coalition of Islamist and secular parties that contested a presidential election in 2006 against the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh - warned that they would walk out of the government if Saleh’s party dominated the cabinet.

"Giving preference or dominance to a certain party in the government will undermine its success." the party said in a letter to the president on Tuesday.

The JMP have been sharing the cabinet with Saleh's party since 2011, following another peace deal brokered by the neighbouring Gulf States and the UN.

Under that deal, Saleh gave power to his deputy, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

Now, however, the Houthis said that they are no longer abiding by the GCC deal and the distribution of ministries is in accordance with terms of the 21 September deal instead.

"There will neither be quota nor political allegiances in the new government. All should be loyal to the nation." Gohoum said.

If the rest of the parties fall in line, this will likely see the southern movement gain 12 seats and the JMP and General People's Congress get nine each.

Hadi is expected to name four key ministers including defence, interior, finance and foreign affairs. It is not yet clear what seats the Houthi - Southern alliance will seek but the latest announcement guarantees that no extreme southern secessionists will be included, with the seats rather going to moderate candidates.

New faces

Saleh’s party too has pledged to put forward a fresh and less controversial crop of candidates and not select any figures from the old guard.

Hussien Hazeb, a prominent member in the GPC, told MEE that his party would propose names that have not been appointed as ministers.

“It is natural with the new changes in the capital that we bring new blood to the government," Hazeb said.

Commenting on the JMP's threat to boycott the government, Hazeb said that the Houthis and Southern alliance, who have not been in the cabinet, should be given seats.

Hazeb countered JMP threats by saying that his party will withdraw from the cabinet if the JMP were given more seats than his party.

"We will walk out of the government if the president bowed down to their pressure and gave them more than us. We are bigger than them and have more supporters. We have a coalition of 14 parties, some are older that the JMP."

Dismantling tents

Witnesses in the capital said that the Houthis have dismantled their camps in the airport road.

Under the latest peace deal, the Houthis should remove their camp sites from the capital after the appointment of a new prime minster. While a new PM has been appointed, the Houthis said that they would not pull out their popular committees until security is fully restored, citing fears that al-Qaeda militants are waiting in the wings for them to leave the capital so as to replace them.

"If the committees left the capital and other areas, al-Qaeda and Daesh-akin fighters will take over. The committees are securing the country with the army. They will leave when the government is formed and security forces take over the security matters." Gohoum said.