Yemen's new president Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi Yemen's new president Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi was sworn in before the country's parliament on Saturday, replacing Ali Abdullah Saleh, who ruled the country for 33 years before leaving office in a power transfer deal aimed at ending over a year of political turmoil.
Yemen's election commission had said on Friday that 65 per cent of registered voters in the country picked Hadi, who was Saleh's vice president. Tuesday's voting, part of a US-backed agreement to ease Saleh out of office after almost a year of popular protests, made the Yemeni ruler the fourth leader to be pushed from power since the Arab Spring uprisings erupted early last year. Saleh is however the first to leave in an internationally negotiated exit.
Election Commission chief Mohammed Al-Hakimi said Hadi got 6.6 million votes, more than 99 per cent of the total; while the remaining 25,000 ballots were invalid. The ballot offered only one option: voting "yes" for Mr. Hadi. Approximately 3.6 million of Yemen's 10.2 million potential voters didn't participate.
Hadi was sworn into office earlier than expected, following a single-candidate presidential election earlier in the week. In a televised speech, the new president swore to keep up Yemen's fight against Al-Qaeda-linked militants, who took advantage of the country's upheaval to seize control of several parts of the country.
He also pledged to work to bring home the thousands displaced by fighting between government troops, southern separatists, mutinous military units, tribal movements, and numerous other factions.
"One of the most prominent tasks is the continuation of war against Al-Qaeda as a religious and national duty, and to bring back displaced people to their villages and towns," Hadi said.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner called the election "a positive step forward" and said "it speaks to the fact that Yemenis are ready to move on to their future."
Hadi has to tackle myriad Yemeni problems, including a growing threat from Al-Qaeda, widespread poverty and a southern secessionist movement.
He also has to restructure powerful security forces packed with Saleh loyalists, launch a national dialogue including secessionists, and appease a restless religious minority in the north as well as disparate opposition groups in the heartland.
After the results from Tuesday's vote were announced, fireworks burst over the capital, Sanaa, in brief celebration in a city that has been torn by strife.
Hadi is taking over after months of uncertainty over whether Saleh would step down in the face of the mass protests that plunged the nation into a political crisis.
Many fear that Saleh may still try to pull the strings during the transitional period until a new constitution is written through his massive network of tribal and familial relations.
Saleh arrived home in Yemen early Saturday local time, the Yemeni Embassy in Washington said, after weeks in the US for further treatment of serious burns caused by an attack on his palace last June. He had pledged to return for his successor's inauguration.