Yemenis go to polls as violence flares up in southern regions Profile: Yemen's presidential election candidate Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi ...
Yemenis go to polls as violence flares up in southern regions
Profile: Yemen's presidential election candidate Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi
 |
Employees in a polling station prepare for the election in Sanaa, Feb. 20, 2012, a day before Yemen's one-candidate presidential election on Feb. 21. (Xinhua/Mohammed)
SANAA, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Yemenis headed for polling stations Tuesday morning to vote for a successor to outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh, hoping to pull the impoverished country back from a possible civil war.
More than 10 million eligible voters are expected to cast their ballots at about 29,000 polling stations across Yemen from 8:00 ( 0500 GMT) to 18:00 (1500 GMT), with over 100,000 soldiers guarding the process. However, a string of attacks on election committees flared up in the country's restive southern regions.
Under a Gulf-brokered power transfer deal signed by Saleh and the opposition in November 2011 in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, the outgoing president handed over power to his deputy, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the only consensus candidate in Tuesday's poll, in return for immunity from prosecution.
On the eve of the polls, there were explosions at polling stations and fierce clashes between security forces and anti- government militants in the county's south, leaving at least two soldiers dead and more than 10 others injured and raising fears that Tuesday's voting would be marred by violence.
Long lines were seen early Tuesday morning outside polling stations in the capital Sanaa. People were waiting for their turn to vote for Hadi, hoping the 66-year-old man could bring changes to the country.
"We are saying goodbye to Saleh and his 33-year rule... We want him to stay in New York and never come back," Fatima Motahar, a mother of three children, told Xinhua after she cast her vote.
Saleh, who went to the United States last month for medical treatment, said earlier this month that he would return to Yemen for Hadi's inauguration.
Hail al-Masanee, 29, waiting in one of the queues, said that " Today is a historical day for Yemen... a victory of our one-year struggle for freedom... and if Hadi fails to introduce reforms as he promised, he will face the same fate of Saleh."
More than 20 polling stations in cities under the control of al- Qaida, separatist Southern Movement and Houthi-led Shiite rebels in the southern provinces of Abyan, Shabwa, Aden, al-Djalee and Hajja and the northern provinces of Saada and Hajja were closed by anti-election groups.
Yemen's new president will lead a two-year transitional government tasked with amending the constitution and holding parliamentary elections, according to the Gulf-brokered deal.
In a speech delivered on Sunday, Hadi vowed to revive the country's shattered economy and intensify the fight against al- Qaida networks in Yemen.
He also promised to launch a national dialogue involving all the political factions in Yemen to settle the political crisis that has dragged the country to the edge of a civil war.
However, Shiite Houthi rebels in the north and the Southern Movement, the two major opposition groups, have rejected the legitimacy of Hadi and the transitional government and called on voters to boycott the election.
Explosions and heavy gunfire were heard overnight near several police stations and voting centers in the southeastern provinces of Hadramout and Shabwa, as well as in the port city of Aden.
Militants from the Southern Movement clashed Tuesday morning with Yemeni security forces in Hadramout, killing at least two policemen and injuring five others, witnesses and police officers told Xinhua.
Fierce clashes erupted between the government forces and armed secessionist after the latter raided some polling stations with home-made grenades in an attempt to disrupt voting in the coastal city of Mukalla, Hadramout's provincial capital, a local police officer said on condition of anonymity.
"Shooting is still going on in various areas of Hadramout province," a witness said.
Analysts and political observers on Tuesday warned of possible clashes in Aden and other major cities in the country's south, where army tanks and soldiers are deployed and dozens of security checkpoints set up.
The Southern Movement leaders in Aden called Tuesday for a general strike, which they described as the first step in "a civil disobedience campaign to boycott the fake election by the northerners," according to a statement received by Xinhua.
The movement said the campaign would include closing stores and schools and blocking main streets in the southern provinces.
A local government official in Aden said on condition of anonymity that "the strike campaign launched by the Southern Movement aims to undermine the social activities and interrupt public life in an attempt to reach political gains."
A witness in Aden said anonymously that "the army forces broke into the stores that were involved in the strike in al-Mansoura district in downtown Aden, triggering severe clashes with pro- secession gunmen."
The northern and southern parts of Yemen were unified in 1990 under a deal between Saleh's ruling General People's Congress party and the Yemeni Socialist Party. However, the deal fell apart later, leading to a crisis between the two sides, which developed into a civil war in 1994.
Separatists who want to end the north-south union are demanding independence, claiming discrimination by northerners and a lack of financial aid.
Meanwhile, militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have taken advantage of the year-long unrest to bolster their presence in the country's south, including cities in Abyan and Shabwa provinces they seized late in May 2011.
The terrorist group claimed responsibility for killing several senior Yemeni intelligence officers last month in a statement on Monday night, in an act of defiance to the Yemeni authorities in the southern provinces.
The ongoing fighting with al-Qaida militants, which shows the country's fragile security situation, will be a major challenge for the new administration.
Related:
Yemen's presidential candidate eyes reviving economy, ending al-Qaida's influence
SANAA, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Yemeni Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the only candidate for Tuesday's presidential polls, has vowed to revive the country's shattered economy and intensify the fight against al-Qaida network in Yemen.
"(Tackling) the economic crisis will be my first priority... I will work to bring changes and a better future for our nation... and we ask our friendly donor countries for urgent aids," Hadi said Sunday in a speech.？
COMMENTS