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.
