Anti-election riot erupts in southern Yemen before presidential polls, dozens injured

ADEN, Yemen, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Armed clashes erupted Monday between Yemeni security forces and gunmen from the pro-secession Southern Movement in the country's southern regions, leaving dozens injured from both sides, police officers and witnesses told Xinhua.

Anti-government activists and militants launched campaigns to disrupt the upcoming presidential vote in the southeastern province of Shabwa by attacking several headquarters of the electoral committee and setting up fake checkpoints to prevent ballot boxes from entering their cities, according to witnesses and local residents.

The electoral committee building in Ataq city, Shabwa's provincial capital, was attacked by unknown gunmen believed to be linked to the Southern Movement after a short shootout with security forces, injuring at least 14 gunmen and five soldiers, a witness told Xinhua anonymously.

"The gunmen burned all the documents and ballot boxes in the electoral committee after the retreat of government troops stationed around the polling booth," the witness said, adding that "The whole building was set on fire."

In the neighboring southeastern province of Hadramout, security sources told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that gunmen imposed a tightened besiege on a number of headquarters of the electoral committee across the city.

"Polling stations are blockaded now by gunmen," a local security source said.

In the southern al-Dhalea province, a police officer said that pro-separatism gunmen attacked a security checkpoint, leaving at least six soldiers injured before fleeing the scene.

"The security post was ambushed this afternoon by gunmen trying to derail the presidential election," an officer at the checkpoint said.

The Yemeni authorities have tightened security measures in Aden and restive southern regions, where secessionists are calling for a boycott of Tuesday's one-candidate presidential election, by deploying a large number of army troops backed by dozens of armored vehicles across the province, according to local residents.

Earlier in the day, explosions rocked several polling stations in the southern port city of Aden, followed by shootouts between security forces and pro-separatism gunmen, killing at least one policeman and injuring five others, security officers told Xinhua.

Leaders of the Southern Movement said that they would boycott the early presidential election by preventing voters from casting their ballots.

The northern and southern parts of Yemen were unified in 1990 according to a deal between Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's ruling General People's Congress party and the Yemeni Socialist Party. However, the deal fell apart, leading to a crisis between the two sides, which developed into a civil war in 1994.

Separatists who want to end the north-south union deal are demanding independence, saying the northerners discriminate against the southerners.