SUMMARY

The General People's Congress (GPC) party was formed by President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 1982, becoming the de facto ruling party of Yemen after unification in 1990. It formally remains the largest party in the House of Representatives (the lower house of the Yemeni Parliament), though the body is largely defunct of authority and no elections has been held since 2003. The Saleh-regime was overthrown by the Yemeni Arab Spring protests of 2011-2012, but Saleh himself and his close family remained major political players in the following years, rallying much of the GPC as well as loyalist military formations. The GPC factions loyal to Saleh aligned itself with Ansarallah (commonly known as the Houthis) during the early stages of the conflict over government, while parts of the party was aligned with his former vice-President and later President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who commanded the Forces of Hadi.

Relations between Saleh and Ansarallah deteriorated after they took control of the government in 2015, and Saleh split from the Ansarallah government to lead the GPC in an attempt to overthrow the government in November 2017. Several days of heavy fighting in the capital Sanaa and its surroundings resulted in the death of Ali Abdullah Saleh on 4 December 2017 and caused the GPC to splinter further. Parts of the GPC remained loyal to Saleh's relatives, Ahmad Saleh and Tareq Saleh. The leading pro-Saleh faction organized military forces under the banner of the Yemeni National Resistance (YNR), led by Tareq Saleh, and participated as part of the Forces of Hadi. Those that remained in Ansarallah-controlled areas splintered as a pro-Houthi branch of the party under the leadership of Sadeq Amin Abu Rass.

GPC has been involved in the state-based category of UCDP organised violence. FPC was the Government of Yemen from its creation in 1982 until 2011.