SANA'A: Official Yemen government sources in Aden announced on Tuesday afternoon that a man who was planting a bomb inside a polling station in the southern seaport city accidentally detonated the device, killing himself insistently in the blast. This is the second time this week that a direct attack against the presidential elections was carried out in the south, which is deeply worrisome for the local authorities. Although officials admitted that they could not clearly identify the culprit, several were quick to point the finger at al-Haraq, the southern secessionist movement since its leader announced a few days ago that his men would prevent the elections from taking place. “An unknown man trying to plant an explosive device in a polling booth in the neighborhood of Crater … was killed when it exploded. We cannot accuse anyone yet, but the extremist factions of the (separatist) Southern Movement led by (Yemen Socialist Party's former leader) Ali Salem al-Baidh are trying to hamper the elections,” said an local statesman. Central Security forces told Bikyamasr.com that high-ranking officers had ordered several units to deploy in the vicinity of the blast as it was the home to election committees' headquarters, stressing that another round of attacks was “very likely.” “We will do our utmost to maintain security and ensure that the elections will go ahead as planned,” the source added. Tensions are escalating in Yemen's southern provinces with more clashes being reported in between secessionist, al-Qaeda militants and the government forces every day. Several detractors of the regime and former members of the ruling party told Bikyamsar.com that the whole “southern crisis”, as they put it, was designed and orchestrated by President Ali Abdullah Saleh and some members of his family. The men claim that Saleh loyalists had been charged to disrupt the election process by distributing weapons to groups they knew opposed the coalition government, hoping to use the diversion to stage a “coup d'état” and set in place a military-run-state with at its head, Ahmed Ali Abdullah, President Saleh's eldest son and head of the Republican Guards. “Saleh is willing to risk the country's unity to guarantee that his son will rule. He hopes to negotiate some sort of a truce after that or simply rage war on the South as he did in 1994,” said a former official under cover of anonymity. These claims are not corroborated by facts, nor could they be independently verified. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/m0DO7 Tags: Attack, Blame, Elections, Houthis, Violence Section: Latest News, Yemen
