SANA'A: Massive demonstrations were staged on Friday across Yemen as revolutionary leaders wanted to remind politicians and foreign officials that the people were still very much a force to be reckoned with and that nothing would be done without popular support. “We came out today to say that we are still here, we are keeping an eye on things. And if we support the one-man election we do not agree with the fact that the government has allowed several members of President Ali Abdullah Saleh to stay on…it needs to change, they need to leave,” Ahmed Hassan a speaker at “Change Square” in Sana'a, the capital, told Bikyamasr.com. After much debate and controversy, Yemenis seem to have rallied, at least for the most part of the northern territories, behind Vice-President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his sole nomination to the presidency, recognizing that safe from another revolutionary wave there was no other way forward, at least for now. However, the Southern Secessionist Movement, known as al-Harak, continues to renounce the elections, calling for an end to Sana'a colonialism. Despite several attempts from foreign diplomats, amongst whom the Russian and American ambassadors to Yemen, to negotiate a truce until after the elections as several al-Harak armed militants stormed polling stations, spreading fear of more violence, its leaders maintained that they “would not allow the elections to go through in the South.” With Tuesday only four days away, the coalition government is running out of option. On Friday, a dozen of people were injured following clashes between al-Harak supporters and Hadi's campaigners in Mukalla, the regional capital of the eastern province of Hadramaut, with witnesses reporting that petrol bombs and stones were hurled into the crowd provoking widespread panic. Several other incidents were reported throughout the province as secessionists worked at disrupting the electoral preparations. A few weeks ago the province's Sheikh called for a general boycott of the elections. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/GHNRb Tags: Elections, Hadi, Protests Section: Latest News, Yemen
