Sana’a Yemenis turned out in huge numbers in most provinces on Tuesday to choose a new leader despite some disruptions in southern cities.
Four people killed and a dozen injured as government forces skirmished with secessionist–suspected gunmen. Thousands of troops backed by tanks and armed vehicles were deployed for the smooth conduct of the presidential poll.
In the capital, thousands of people queued outside polling stations in the first election where the outgoing president is not a contender.
The sole presidential candidate, Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, casted a vote in the capital. Hadi is expected to replace Yemen’s long-serving president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Also, other influential figures including Ali Mohsin Al Ahmar, the commander of the army’s 11th Armed division and one of the breakaway units that opposed the Saleh regime, prime minister and tribal leaders participated in the polls.
Saleh’s eldest brother Ahmad also showed up to choose his father’s successor.
Witnesses said that the voting process went smoothly in the capital.
In Taiz, Yemen’s most populated city, a local journalist told Gulf News that the turnout was so huge and unexpectedly high that the polling stations ran out of ballot papers.
“Only a handful of people boycotted the election, some of them who are loyal to Al Houthis,” witnesses said.
Polling was also peaceful in other northern provinces.
The calls for boycott by the separatist Southern Movement have turned into bloody confrontation between movement’s armed men and security forces.
Clashes occurred in most of the southern cities. In the port city of Aden, three people, including a child, were killed and at least 10 injured when police fired live ammunition at crowds who tried to storm polling stations.
A witness said that only a limited number of polling stations in the city recorded a considerable number of voters. Some centres were looted by the movement’s activists and people were seen carrying ballot boxes.
Also, heavy gun fire echoed through the coastal city of Mukalla since the early hours of Tuesday, which kept people indoors. A soldier was killed and at least a dozen injured as the southern movement organised rallies to disturb election.
Sitting in an empty polling station in Mukalla city, Jehan Ahmad, a member of election committee, told Gulf News that only 11 women out 500 turned up.
“We received threatening calls and two members of the committee could not come today because Herak [secessionists] prevented them.”
To protest at the country’s presidential polls, separatists called civil disobedience in all southern cities.
Despite violence in the south, the Supreme Committee for Elections and Referendum said that the voting process went according to plan in 292 constituencies across the country and the polling was disturbed only in 9 constituencies in the southern provinces of Lahj, Galae and Abyan.
The committee stated that there was an unexpectedly huge turnout in the early hours of the voting.
