Yemen's separatists stage anti-election rallies amid violence

ADEN, Yemen, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Tens of thousands of Yemenis staged rallies in the country's southern port city of Aden and major southern towns on Thursday to protest the upcoming presidential election.

The anti-election demonstrators, who were from the pro- separatism Southern Movement waving the flag of former south Yemen state and raising banners to urge their supporters to boycott the upcoming presidential election, claimed that it goes against their goal of reviving their former state. They also chanted slogans against the north-south union deal signed in 1990.

"No election, No federation ... out, out occupation," thousands of southern activists chanted while demonstrating in downtown Aden against the election, scheduled for Feb. 21. They also called for actions to prevent people from voting in the southern regions.

Meanwhile, armed clashes erupted on Thursday between the security forces and pro-separatist protesters in various southern cities with continued attacks against voting centers by armed militants, believed to be from the Southern Movement, a security official told Xinhua anonymously.

"Repeated armed attacks carried out today by separatists against several headquarters of the electoral committee in the southeastern provinces of Shabwa and Hadramout," the official said.

"Three home-made grenades were thrown by the southern armed men into the buildings of the electoral committee in Bihan area in Shabwa province, but no casualties were reported," he said.

"Also in Hadramout province a huge explosion rocked the headquarters of a local polling center, causing huge damage to the building without any casualties," he added.

A witness told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that "the pro- separatist protesters blocked the main roads in Hadramout with cement barricades and burned unused tires in the streets."

The local government authorities deployed a number of armored vehicles and tanks around the headquarters of polling centers and across the entrances of the province following the anti-election riot, according to local residents.

In Aden, a member of the separatist movement said that the EU ambassadors to Yemen failed to persuade the movement's leaders to participate in the upcoming presidential election.

"During a meeting held in Aden city Thursday, the EU ambassadors tried to convince us about the importance of the presidential election, but we refused that and insisted on our firm stands," Ahmed Omar, a member of the Southern Movement, told Xinhua.

The Yemeni power-sharing government has geared up for the election scheduled for Feb. 21, which is part of a UN-backed power transfer deal to ease outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh out of office and steer the impoverished Arab state back from a possible civil war.

Under the deal, which was signed by Saleh and the opposition in November 2011, the rival political parties nominated Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi as the sole presidential candidate for the early election.

The riot showed the country's fragile security situation days ahead of the elections that would end the rule of Saleh who is currently in the United States for medical treatment.