Yemen’s GPC say refuse to participate in Houthi unity government

Yemen’s General People’s Congress Party, led by former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, announced on Wednesday that it will not participate in a unity government to be formed by Houthi rebels.

The party’s official website reported unnamed media sources as saying that the Ansar Allah Houthi group who seized power on 21 September, 2014, have every right to form a government with their partners.

“The General People’s Congress has decided that it will not participate in the Houthi government until the group abolishes its constitutional declaration announced on 6 February, under which it resolved parliament and granted their revolutionary committees the head of state authorities,” the group said.

Shia Houthi rebels and Yemeni parties allied with them announced on Tuesday their intention to form a national unity government with broad representation within 10 days.

A member of the group’s political council, Hamza Al-Houthi, told reporters in Sanaa that the government will be a national unity government because the country is going through an exceptional “constitutional and political vacuum” which requires strong political components to fill this void.

The press conference included representatives of small parties loyal to the Houthis, such as the Al- Haq party and the Syrian Baath party, as well as the National Democratic Alliance, however not the General People’s Congress Party, the Houthi’s closest ally at home.