Exercise in Democracy

To the dismay of neighboring Saudi Arabia's conservative monarchy, the Red Sea republic of Yemen has taken a first step from one-man rule toward multiparty democracy. The General People's Congress Party, which governed North Yemen before its 1990 merger with the Marxist South, won a plurality of the 301 parliamentary seats. But in a bid to curb lawlessness and inflation, President Ali Abdullah Saleh promises a coalition government that will include the southern Yemen socialist and fundamentalist parties.