Yemen to kick off 1 man presidential campaign

 Yemen`s one-candidate presidential election campaign, as part of a UN-backed power transfer deal to ease the 33-year ruler, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, out of office, is due to officially start on Tuesday, according to a statement posted on the Yemeni state media on Monday.

"Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is the only candidate in the Feb. 21 polls, will on Tuesday give his first television advertisement for his presidential election campaign during an official ceremony," the statement said.

It said the campaign would kick off under a slogan "Together, we will build new Yemen," as Hadi would introduce his platform in a speech to be aired by the state television. 

The ceremony is expected to be witnessed by a high attendance, including leaders of the country`s ruling and opposition parties who signed the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-brokered deal, as well as foreign ambassadors to Yemen.

The 65-year-old vice president, who was promoted last month to the rank of Field Marshal in a republican decree issued by Saleh a few days before he traveled to the United States for medical treatment, is expected to run Yemen during a two-year interim period with a crucial mission to pull the country back from the brink of civil war through restructuring and uniting the rival armed forces and introducing constitutional reforms.

The impoverished Arab country has been in the grip of a one- year long political crisis triggered by mass protests demanding the ouster of Saleh. About 2,000 people have been killed and thousands of others injured since the protests began in late January 2011.

Under the GCC deal, which put an end to the mass protests, the Yemeni parliament unanimously nominated Hadi as the sole presidential candidate for the upcoming elections.

Saleh, who signed the UN-backed power transfer deal in November 2011 in return for immunity from prosecution, said in a farewell speech he made last month before his departure to the United States that he would return to Sanaa for Hadi`s inauguration.

Despite the planned political settlement, the deal`s immunity clause sparked nationwide daily protests, demanding the prosecution of Saleh and his aides for "killing people since the protests began in late January 2011." 

Source: ANTARA