Yemenis go to polls as violence flares up
February 21st, 2012 - 4:09 pm ICT by IANSSanaa, Feb 21 (IANS) Yemenis headed for polling stations Tuesday to vote for a successor to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, hoping to pull the impoverished country back from possible civil war.
More than 10 million eligible voters are expected to cast their ballots at about 29,000 polling stations across Yemen, 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, reported Xinhua.
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 clashes between security forces and anti-government militants in the county’s south, leaving at least two soldiers dead and more than 10 injured and raising fears Tuesday’s voting would be marred by violence.
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.
During a speech Sunday, Hadi vowed to revive the country’s shattered economy and intensify the fight against Al Qaeda networks in Yemen.
He also promised to launch a national dialogue involving all political factions in the Arab country to settle the political crisis that has dragged it to the edge of civil war.
- Hadi elected as Yemen's new president - Feb 25, 2012
- Yemen's Saleh hands over power to new president - Feb 27, 2012
- 20 killed as suicide bomber hits Yemen's presidential palace - Feb 26, 2012
- Yemen to get over $3 billion Saudi Arabian aid - May 24, 2012
- Yemeni vice president is acting president: Al Jazeera - Jun 05, 2011
- Outgoing Yemen president heads to US for medical treatment - Jan 23, 2012
- 18 dead as Yemeni forces fire on protesters - Sep 18, 2011
- Yemeni president apologises to US over embassy attack - Sep 14, 2012
- Yemeni president sacks intelligence chiefs - Sep 12, 2012
- Yemeni President Saleh says he will 'soon' return to his country - Aug 17, 2011
- Over 50 killed as clashes between Yemeni security forces and tribal rebels continue - May 25, 2011
- Saleh's family preventing vice-president from taking full power - Jun 06, 2011
- US asks Yemeni president to hand over power - Jul 11, 2011
- Saleh not to sign power-transfer plan in Qatari envoys' presence - Apr 29, 2011
- Yemeni government welcomes Riyadh's conciliation call - Apr 06, 2011
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