Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has taken power in Yemen. The election today was simply a formality, as there was no other candidate for voters to choose. This presidential election is the result of an uprising in the country that lasted over a year and ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world and it is still close to falling into chaos, though. Hadi was former President Saleh’s vice president. He will now start to implement a deal that shares power with political opponents of the former president. Hadi taking over as the country’s leader was part of an agreement that was backed by the Western World to get Saleh out of power after 33 years.
The uprising that started a year ago in Yemen was very bloody and was one of the worst in the region. Saleh is now the fourth leader to be ousted since the Arab Spring began in Tunisia last year. Saleh’s sons and nephews are keeping much of the power in the country, though. They will continue to lead the country’s powerful security agencies and military.
As a vivid reminder of the task facing Hadi, there were nine people killed yesterday in violence related to the elections. Many separatists groups in the country demanded that people boycott the elections. The government used minibuses covered in Hadi posters and loudspeakers to tell people to vote to save the country. There were long lines of people that were ready to vote before the polling stations even opened.
Tawakul Karman, who won the Nobel Peace Prize this year, was casting her vote, saying that the country was now at the end of Saleh’s era. Her hope is for a new Yemen. People voted by pressing their ink-stamped finger on a ballet that bore a picture of Hadi.
The huge turnout for the elections should give Hadi the political strength he needs to carry out the transfer of power. There is to be a new constitution, as well as a restructuring of the military. There are to be multi-party elections held within two years.
