65 • Affecting a comprehensive administrative and financial reform that uproots corruption, addresses the ill distribution of man­power, establishes labour and civil service organisations, and adopts scientific criteria for appointment, promotion and re­tirement; • Protection of the private sector through respect for property rights and from the misuse of authority by state employees; • Change the traditional perception of women, considering them to be equal with men in ensuring the family economy. In terms of policy tendencies or diversity existing in the party, a cleav­age currently exists between the party’s remaining old guards who were part of the leadership structure of the former South Yemen, and the liberal-democratic reformers who want to modernise the YSP into a social democratic party, and to maintain its unity. 3.4.2. Party Structure A. Membership The party claims that it has 300,000 members, out whom 20-25% are females, and 60-65% are under the age of 30. As the ruling party of the former PDRY(South Yemen), the YSP still attracts the majority of its members, percentage wise, from the Southern governorates. In the 1993 parliamentary elections, YSP was successful in every single gover­norate of the former PDRY. Although the YSP boycotted the 1997 par­liamentary elections, voting returns in the southern governorates dem­onstrated YSP’s continued strength in those areas. A 12% decline in the number of votes cast in the South in 1997 compared to 1993 suggests that the party retains measurable popularity, especially when taking into consideration that the number of votes cast in the North rose 34% dur­ing the same period. This fact was confirmed with the first announce­ment of the election results of the Yemeni First Local Council Election of February 2001.