21 3. Political Parties in Yemen 3.1. Objectives and Methodology There are not many detailed and up-to-date studies or surveys on politi­cal parties in Yemen. Therefore the aim has come, after a decade of experience with the Yemen’s emerging democracy, to create a base of information on the political parties of unified Yemen. This study will enable researchers, journalists, political activists, civil society organisa­tions, international observers and others to further develop the stoke of knowledge on Yemen. It will serve as a reference for constitutional, legal, and practical insights on the political parties in Yemen. Political parties are among the most important core elements, if not the most important ones, for any democracy, especially if it is an emerging one. Yemen has a newly born emerging democratic experience in which the forms, contents, and performance of political parties are among the main factors for the consolidation of democracy. This study is an attempt to explore the structure of political parties, identifying all the indicators and obstacles in a prescriptive manner that is partly based on a descriptive critical approach and analysis. An attempt is made to understand the negative elements and positive values of the parties while searching for the causes behind the achievements or prospects, if any, for future progress in a poor, developing country like Yemen. Thus, such a political study depends on documents and publications of different political parties, current electoral legislation’s in Yemen, po­litical observation, individual experience, surveys and questionnaires, and interviews. The present study is concentrates on the three major political parties, which constitute around ¾ of the Yemeni political scene: the General People’s Congress(GPC), the Yemeni Congregation for Reform(Islah), and the Yemeni Socialist Party(YSP). It is a study of politics and d political parties in an emerging democracy, and of their possible impact on future democratic consolidation. Yet, we do not suggest that other smaller parties(in size, impact, and experience) are not of that importance, but for time and space, and above all be­cause the three main parties do in some way or another reflect the other