Mock elections in Yemen

By Will Morrow:

Yemen: US-brokered presidential elections held with single candidate

25 February 2012

Presidential elections were held on Tuesday in Yemen as part of a US-brokered agreement that retains the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh without Saleh himself. Underscoring the fraudulent character of the elections, Mansour Al-Hadi, Saleh’s vice president for 17 years, was the sole candidate.

Hadi, a former general in South Yemen who was appointed vice president by Saleh in 1994 following reunification with the north, is expected to be officially inaugurated on Monday. He will remain president for at least two years before new elections are held.

According to election officials, only 60 percent of the population turned out to vote, and as little as 40 percent in parts of the south. Thousands protested in the capital on the day of the vote to call for Saleh, who until recently was residing in the United States, to be placed on trial. According to Al Jazeera, similar protests have taken place daily in the lead-up to the election. More than 100,000 soldiers were reportedly deployed to polling stations nationally.

The elections are part of an agreement orchestrated by the Obama administration with the support of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Yemenis feel the US’ covert military campaign is further destabilising their country: here.

At least 25 Killed by Recent US Drone Strikes in Yemen, Allegedly Targeting Militants Linked to al-Qaeda: here.

Why Is President Obama Keeping a Journalist in Prison in Yemen?
Jeremy Scahill, The Nation: “On February 2, 2011, President Obama called Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The two discussed counterterrorism cooperation and the battle against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). At the end of the call, Obama ‘expressed concern’ over the release of a man named Abdulelah Haider Shaye, whom Obama said ‘had been sentenced to five years in prison for his association with AQAP.’ Abdulelah Haider Shaye is not an Islamist militant or an Al Qaeda operative. He is a journalist”: here.