Joint Meeting Parties

The Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) is the organized opposition in Yemen’s interim government. The JMP represents a coalition of political parties that formed in 2002 to oppose the GPC. The JMP is comprised of five parties: (1) Al- Islah, an Islamist coalition; (2) the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP), which was the ruling party of South Yemen before the 1990 unification; (3) Al-Haq, which was created after Yemen’s 1990 unification; (4) the Unionist Party, which has been active since 1965; and (5) the Popular Forces Union, which declined to participate in Yemen’s National Dialogue Conference (NDC). Of the five, Al-Islah and YSP are the most politically significant members. The JMP is plagued by internal tension due to the wide variety of interests it represents. Even within Al-Islah, the more radical Salafist wing often disagrees with the more moderate Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood and Hashid tribes. Al-Islah recently announced that it will leave the JMP, accusing the opposition coalition of being complicit in stalling the political transition. YSP is also internally divided, because they have a stake in many of the issues important to Al-Hiraak. Due to these divisions, the JMP has struggled to create a comprehensive platform.

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