SANAA, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Yemenis headed for polling stations Tuesday morning to vote for a successor to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, hoping to pull the impoverished country back from possible civil war.
More than 10 million eligible voters are expected to cast their ballots at about 29,000 polling stations across Yemen from 8:00 (0500 GMT) to 18:00 (1500 GMT), with over 100,000 soldiers guarding the process. However, a string of attacks on election committees flared up in the country's restive southern regions.
Under a Gulf-brokered power transfer deal signed by Saleh and the opposition in November 2011 in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, the outgoing president handed over power to his deputy, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the only consensus candidate in Tuesday's poll, in return for immunity from prosecution.
On the eve of the polls, there were explosions at polling stations and fierce clashes between security forces and anti-government militants in the county's south, leaving at least two soldiers dead and more than 10 others injured and raising fears Tuesday's voting would be marred by violence.
Yemen's new president will lead a two-year transitional government, tasked with amending the constitution and holding parliamentary elections, according to the Gulf-brokered deal.
During a speech Sunday, Hadi vowed to revive the country's shattered economy and intensify the fight against al-Qaida networks in Yemen.
He also promised to launch a national dialogue involving all political factions in the Arab country to settle the political crisis that has dragged it to the edge of civil war.
However, Shiite al-Houthi rebels in the north and the separatist Southern Movement, the two major opposition groups, have rejected the legitimacy of Hadi and the transitional government and called on voters to boycott the elections.
Explosions and heavy gunfire were heard near several police stations and voting centers overnight in the southeastern provinces of Hadramout and Shabwa, as well as in the port city of Aden, but no casualties were reported.
Analysts and political observers on Tuesday warned of possible clashes in Aden and other major cities in the country's south, where army tanks and soldiers are deployed and dozens of security checkpoints set up.
Southern Movement leaders in Aden called Tuesday for a general strike, which they described as the first step in "a civil disobedience campaign to boycott the fake election by the northerners," according to a statement received by Xinhua.
The movement said the campaign would include closing stores, schools and blocking main streets in the southern provinces.
A local government official in Aden said on condition of anonymity that "the strike campaign launched by the Southern Movement aims to undermine the social activities and interrupt public life in an attempt to reach political gains."
A witness in Aden said anonymously, "the army forces broke into the stores that were involved in the strike in al-Mansoura district in downtwon Aden, triggering severe clashes with pro-secession gunmen."
The northern and southern parts of Yemen were unified in 1990 under a deal between 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 are demanding independence, claiming discrimination by northerners and a lack of financial aid.
Meanwhile, militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have taken advantage of the year-long unrest to bolster their presence in the country's south, including cities in Abyan and Shabwa provinces they seized late in May.
The terrorist group claimed responsibility for killing several senior Yemeni intelligence officers last month in a statement on Monday night, in an act of defiance to the Yemeni authorities in the southern provinces.
The ongoing fighting with al-Qaida militants, which shows the country's fragile security situation, will be a major challenge for the new administration.
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