Two Killed in South Yemen Anti-Elections Demo

Yemeni security forces shot dead two southern Yemeni activists during a demonstration Thursday in Daleh against presidential elections to be held later this month, witnesses and activists said.

"Southerner wake up, no more elections," chanted the protesters referring to a referendum-like election in which Vice President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi stands as a sole candidate based on a Gulf brokered deal signed by departing President Ali Abdullah Saleh in November.

"Clashes erupted and security forces opened fire killing two activists," said one of the witnesses.

The protesters marched towards the headquarters of the electoral committee in the city of Daleh in an attempt to drive its members out of the city of Daleh when security forces opened fire, witnesses said.

Activists from the separatist Southern Movement, who say the election fails to meet their aspirations for autonomy or southern independence, confirmed the deaths.

Some factions of the movement have been campaigning for a boycott of the election, while others openly call for preventing the election from taking place at all.

Nationwide protests erupted against Saleh's regime in January 2011, triggering months of bloodshed.

Residents in the formerly independent southern region complain of discrimination by the Sanaa government in the distribution of resources since the union between north and south in 1990.

The south broke away again in 1994, sparking a brief civil war that ended with the region overrun by northern troops.

Hadi, himself a southerner, is the sole candidate in the election to succeed the veteran strongman who is standing down after more than three decades in power.