Yemen's Hadi Hails his Own 'Historic' Election

Yemen's future president Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi hailed Tuesday's election, in which he is the sole candidate, as a "historic day" that would open a new page for the country, as he cast his ballot amid tight security.

"This is a historic day in Yemen. We will turn the page of the past and open a bright new page on which we will write the future of a new Yemen," Hadi told reporters, as he posted his ballot into a box at a polling station in Sanaa amid applause.

Hadi arrived by car at the polling station set up in a remote area of Sanaa's Aasr neighbourhood, a few hundred meters from his residence.

Sources close to Hadi said the tight security measures were taken due to fears of any attacks that might target the future president.

Yemenis are voting in referendum-like elections Tuesday to choose Hadi, the sole consensus candidate, to lead Yemen in a two-year interim period, based on a Gulf-brokered power transfer deal that outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed in November.

Following the transitional period, presidential and parliamentary elections will be held, a condition of the transition deal.

The polls, marred by violence across the southern and southeastern regions, are being boycotted by two main opposition groups -- the northern Shiite rebels and the separatist Southern Movement.

Saleh, who is finally stepping down after 33 years in power under strong domestic and international pressure, remains in the United States where he is being treated from bomb blast wounds he sustained in an attack on his palace in Sanaa last June.