ABSTRACT
The Command Council composed of army officers and under the chairmanship of Colonel Ibrahim Muhammad al-Hamdi was created and assumed all legislative and executive powers. This council immediately suspended the 1970 Constitution and the Consultative Council and dissolved outright the moribund political organization, the National Yemeni Union. The first eighteen months of the al-Hamdi era were dominated by a protracted and convoluted struggle for power. As a young army officer, he had been associated with the Yemeni wing of the Arab Nationalist Movement before it was forced underground after its confrontation with the conservative republicans in 1968. The leaders of the progressive parties hoped and campaigned for an open and formal partnership with President al-Hamdi as a way back into the political system from which they were expelled in 1968. In part with this in mind, six of the parties announced the formation of the National Democratic Front (NDF) in mid-1976.
