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| Arabia |
| Saleh orders Yemen VPÂ’s pictures replace his |
| 2012-02-16 |
| SANAA — Outgoing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has ordered his pictures to be replaced by those of his vice president, who is due to take his place later this month, state news agency Saba reported Wednesday. “President Ali Abdullah Saleh has ordered all authorities and institutions” public and private, across the country, “to take down his pictures from public squares, streets, buildings and offices and raise those of Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi,” Saba reported. Referendum-like elections will be held in Yemen on Tuesday to approve Hadi, the sole candidate, as a consensus president for a two-year term, as per a Gulf-brokered deal which Saleh signed in November after months of pressure. Under the deal, which came in response to an uprising that began in January 2011, Saleh, who has ruled Yemen for three decades, will hand power to Hadi, a southerner, in return for a promise of immunity from prosecution. But while most members of the opposition welcome the election, members of the Southern Movement, who say it fails to meet their aspirations for autonomy or southern independence, have been campaigning for a boycott of the poll. The more extreme factions led by Yemen Socialist Party’s former leader Ali Salem al-Baidh have openly called for preventing the poll from taking place at all. |
| Posted by:Steve White |