PREVIEW: Yemen pins hope for stability on election with one candidate

By Adnan Bureihy and Ramadan Al-Fatash Feb 18, 2012, 6:06 GMT

Sana'a - When Yemenis vote on Tuesday in an early presidential election they will be pinning all their hopes for peace on the sole contender.

The vote is the centrepiece of a deal signed in November by the outgoing president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and the opposition for a peaceful transfer of power.

Vice President Abd Rabbu Mansur Hadi, who has been ruling the country since, is the only candidate. Yemenis hope he can end the year of unrest in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country.

'The election may not bring about radical changes in the political landscape of Yemen,' Fuad al-Salahi, a sociology professor at the University of Sana'a, told dpa. 'Still, it will create relative stability for different political powers in the country to come up with a coherent action plan.'

There is no updated data on the number of eligible voters in Yemen, which has a population of 24.7 million, according to the latest census. There were 9 million registered voters in the 2006 presidential election, according to government data.

Local media, citing election officials, reported that about 12 million voting cards have been printed for Tuesday's election.

According to the Higher Election Commission, 100,000 soldiers will be deployed across the country's 21 provinces to ensure peace and security.

Several Yemeni groups, who have been active in the uprising against Saleh's rule, are urging people to turn out en mass for the election.

'One key objective of the revolution was to remove Saleh from power,' Waleed al-Ammari, the spokesman for the Higher Coordination Committee for Yemeni Uprising, told dpa.

The anti-government protests might 'recede or even stop' if the new president manages to purge the country's security and military institutions of Saleh's relatives, he said.

When the 67-year-old Hadi launched his campaign on February 7, he pledged to hold a national dialogue on all issues, including the rebellions in the southern and northern areas.

'The February 21 elections will be the way out of the crisis that has threatened a full-blown civil war,' Hadi said.

Yemen has witnessed mass protests since February 2011, inspired by the popular revolts in the region, against Saleh's 33-year rule.

Hundreds are believed to have died, but there are no official figures for those killed in the violence between Saleh's troops and rival tribal forces.

Under a deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Saleh agreed to relinquish power to Hadi in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

In an apparent bid to raise Hadi's profile at the ballot box, Saleh, who is in the United States for medical treatment, this week ordered that his photographs in state institutions be replaced with those of the presidential nominee.

Saleh, 69, was severely wounded in June during an attack on the presidential palace in Sana'a. He has said he will return from the US to vote for Hadi and attend his inauguration.

'The local, regional and international consensus over Hadi to be the sole contestant in the election is likely to coax the security and military forces into helping conduct a smooth process of power transfer,' al-Salahi, the sociology professor, said.

But the road ahead for Hadi will likely not be smooth. The Southern Movement, which is pushing for the separation of southern Yemen, has stepped up its campaign to boycott the election.

Meanwhile, insurgents with suspected links to al-Qaeda, have sought for months to get a stronger foothold in Yemen, taking advantage of the weak central government and the anti-Saleh protests.

However, al-Salahi believes that boycotting the election will affect neither its process nor outcome.

'Given the high regional and international interest invested in this election, there will be firm action against those who will attempt to hamper the vote,' al-Salahi said.

Earlier in February, the ambassadors of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the European Union and the Arabian Gulf, countries issued a joint statement in Sana'a calling on Yemenis to make the presidential vote a success.

The EU has pledged 7 million euros (9.2 million dollars) towards supporting the electoral process. The bloc said it will mobilize an electoral mission of independent experts to monitor the balloting process.