Ali Abdullah Saleh GO AWAY, WE DON’T WANT YOU ANYMORE - shouted Voters in Yeman

25.02.2012

Vice President Abed Rabu Mansour Hadi will be sworn in as president of Yemen on Saturday morning in front of Parliament after it was announced Friday that he had won the country’s single-candidate election with 99.6 percent of the vote.

The election, held across Yemen on Tuesday, was intended as an exit route for President Ali Abdullah Saleh, an autocrat who had agreed to step down after more than three decades in power and a year of antigovernment demonstrations calling for his removal. Mr. Saleh agreed to an internationally brokered accord last November that stipulated how the presidency would be transferred to Mr. Hadi. Tuesday’s elections were the culmination of that accord, which also granted Mr. Saleh immunity from prosecution for acts that included turning his security forces on unarmed protesters calling for democracy before he agreed last year to relinquish power. Dozens were killed, and some in the military sided with the opposition.

While Mr. Hadi was the only candidate on the ballot, voter turnout was higher than all sides had anticipated.