SANA'A: One of Yemen's Vice-President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi's advisors, the only candidate to Yemen's next presidential elections, told local media that despite the recent bout of violence, all warring factions had promised to allow the power-transfer to resume peacefully by not preventing Yemenis from casting their vote on February 21. Over recent days, al-Houthis fighters in the provinces of Sa'ada, al-Jawf and Hajjah have warned that since the government had failed to respond to their grievances and demands, they would sabotage the elections in their controlled territories. Moreover the Joint Meeting Party (JMP) accused the Shia militants of having stormed al-Islah's headquarters in the province of Sa'ada in a bid to further disrupt the on-going presidential campaign. Interestingly, Sheikh Abdel Malek al-Houthi, the group's leader, immediately denied the allegations saying that such claims were preposterous; stressing that whoever would try to sabotage the elections will be considered a “traitor to the nation.” This is certainly a change of tone, as the Sheikh only declared last week that he would use “whatever means necessary to forfeit the elections.” The Sheikh's call for a boycott of the elections is still however in vigor. In a bid to reconcile Sana'a with the southern territories, which calls for secession grew louder over the past month; VP Hadi met on Tuesday with several local dignitaries and intellectuals, assuring all that his government would take into considerations southerners' demands. But if Hadi managed to convince some, the southern secessionist movement which over the past week was accused of raiding a revolutionary's encampment and attacking polling stations remained silent, neither confirming nor denying its recent threats against the elections. If anything, Yemen's future remains somewhat blurry. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/tPmiQ Tags: Elections, President, Sectarianism, Violence Section: Latest News, Yemen
