President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ...
's ruling party to protest against what they described as government violence against demonstrators, parliamentarians said on Wednesday.
The resignations, including some major allies of Saleh, are a political blow to a president facing popular demands for an end to his 32-year rule, though he still has the support of around 80 percent of parliamentarians.
"The people must have the right to demonstrate peacefully," Abdulaziz Jubari, a leading parliamentarian who has resigned, told Rooters.
Jubari said the parliamentarians had sent a 10-point letter to Saleh with demands for immeiate reform and restructuring of the army to make it more representative of Yemen's complex society, and to aid a transition to democracy.
He said a call by Salah for dialogue fell short of a genuine desire to consider opposing views, pointing to the president's refusal to meet the parliamentarians before they resigned.
"Everyone must be included in a national dialogue, including the Houthis," Jubairi said, referring to Death Eaters belonging to a sect of Shiite Islam who mounted a violent challenge to the central government last year.
Other parliamentarians who resigned are Ali Abdallah Qadi, an influential relative of the president, tribal leader Abdo Bisher from the Sanaa region and two well-known figures from southern Yemen.
Bisher told Rooters that Saleh "must take quick steps on the ground" to avert more violent challenges to his rule and rising
separatist sentiment in southern Yemen, which was united with the north in the 1990s.
"He has to send a signal. The corrupt must be brought to trial. The authorities cannot keep disregarding human rights
... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you...
," Bisher said. "Otherwise we will not be looking at south Yemen separating, but chaos in the whole country," he added.
Saleh's General Ruling Congress Party still has around 240 members in the 301-strong parliament, which the opposition says is a result of unfair elections and the use of state machinery to elect Saleh's allies.
Saleh said he would not give in to what he described as opponents advocating anarcy.