Clashes erupt in Yemen elections protests

UN Secretary-General Envoy in Yemen Jamal Benomar Yemeni Vice President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi received in Sanaa on Saturday the United Nations Secretary-General Envoy in Yemen Jamal Benomar, while clashes erupted between people supporting and opposing Tuesday’s presidential election.
At the meeting, Hadi reviewed with Benomar the steps that have been done in the implementation of the Gulf initiative and its mechanism and the Security Council resolution No. 2014 up to the early presidential election on February 21, Yemen News Agency Saba reported.
For his part, the UN envoy confirmed that the entire international community is following up the political settlement in Yemen,  saying  it will be "a wonderful example in the Middle East region."
He stressed the importance of security and stability, and  ridding Sanaa, as well as other cities, of all arms and militias. Within the same context, Benomar met  Mohammed al-Hakimi, the head of the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum (SCER) for the early presidential election on February  21. During the meeting, the UN envoy praised the great efforts and final arrangements made by SCER.
He singled out  the importance of the imminent presidential elections, which would be "a beginning of the transitional phase and peaceful transfer of power".
Valuing the remarkable efforts of SCER, Benomar asserted the UNs readiness to provide all aspects of assistance to support SCER in carrying out its tasks.
Al-Hakimi briefed the UN envoy on the arrangements the commission has made for the presidential election as well as the facilities it has offered to enable every 18-year old citizen to exercise their right to vote.
He hailed the efforts of the UN organisations working in Yemen that have supported and cooperated with the commission during all preparatory stages.
Yemenis will head to the polls Tuesday in a one-candidate election that is expected to make Vice President Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi the first president from southern Yemen since the country's two halves were unified in 1990.
Despite this seeming milestone,, few in Aden, the south's former capital, are lining up to endorse the future president. Hadi earned the wrath of many southerners by siding with northern forces and President Ali Abdullah Saleh during the 1994 civil war.
Now, with Saleh forced from power after months of popular demonstrations, many in Aden are boycotting the elections. They're honouring calls by the Southern Movement, a loose grouping of activists and demonstrators who are agitating for an end to Yemeni unity and the restoration of an autonomous southern state.
The Southern Movement was founded in 2007 but pressure and harassment from the central government kept it underground. As Sanaa's grasp on much of Yemen has dissipated over the past year during the Arab Spring-inspired protests, the loosely organised movement has defiantly emerged from the darkness with a hardened commitment to achieving greater autonomy.
In the run-up to elections, the Southern Movement's supporters have burned voter registration cards in symbolic rejection of the election, which they characterise as a sham that will only bolster the Sanaa government.
Despite months of anti-government protests in Sanaa and the formation of a transitional government, southern activists say they remain deeply pessimistic about the political situation. Almost all the movement's various factions have rejected the GCC initiative - backed by the United States and signed by the ruling party and key opposition groups - that provided the basis for Saleh to hand over power, dismissing it as an agreement between northern politicians.
In the run-up to elections, polling places across the south have been attacked and clashes have erupted between those who support the vote and those who oppose it. Southern Movement leaders deny allegations that they are behind the violence, blaming saboteurs linked to Saleh and his allies in the central government.
Still, some activists say the conflict could escalate.
Politicians in Sanaa and many international observers have hailed the election as a crucial step in reforming the Yemeni state. But southerners say that in the absence of concrete steps, they'll continue to agitate for autonomy, which hints at a turbulent post-election period.
In addition, a faction of Southern Movement called on Saturday for a day of "civil disobedience" to disrupt next week's presidential election.
The Higher Council of the Peaceful Movement for the Liberation of the South, in a statement, called on its supporters to "take every possible peaceful action" against Tuesday's election to prevent it going ahead.
The Higher Council warned election day could turn violent and that their supporters would try to prevent voters from casting their ballots at polling stations in the former South Yemen.
Witnesses say posters have been plastered in the streets and on buildings in Yemen's southern port city of Aden calling for a boycott.
"No to elections, yes to secession," said one poster. "Ensuring the failure of the elections is a national and religious duty," reads another.
A security official in Aden said police on Saturday foiled a planned attack on several polling stations in the city by "five members of a terror network," according to a statement released by the official SABA news agency.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not identify the suspects but said they were arrested with "several explosive devices" in their possession.
Their aim is "to instill fear" among voters in an attempt to disrupt the presidential election, the official added.
On Friday, southern militants opposed to the election traded fire with police outside a polling station, leaving three civilians wounded, residents said.