SANA'A: Despite the fact that Yemen was voting in a one-man presidential elections, with Field Marshall Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi as the sole candidate, poor habits and corruption proved too hard to be broken. Journalist Iona Craig reported on her Twitter account that she had chatted with a boy of 16 who just had cast his vote, and another who had dipped his fingers twice in ink. Several other witnesses in the capital Sana'a said that under-age Republican Guards were being allowed to vote despite being clearly below the age limit. “It is ridiculous we all know who is going to win the elections anyway, why corrupt the system. It is bad enough that Yemen allows child soldiers, do we really need them to vote as well, marring our Constitutions with further crimes,” asked a voter near “Change Square.” Officials, however denied any wrongdoing, maintaining that the electoral process went smoothly and with all transparency. The cause of the reported fraud may be that the coalition government wanted a high turn-out to claim legitimacy and move on to the next stage of the power-transfer, the restructuring of the military. Ahmed Ali Saleh, President Ali Abdullah Saleh's eldest son was seen in Sana'a casting his vote alongside several other military officers, while somewhere in the capital, his opponent, Sheikh Hameed al-Ahmar also went to the polls. By the end of the afternoon, the Yemen Election Committee (YEC) reported a level of “participation above and beyond all expectations.” No word has yet to be given on how rural Yemen had done and whether disruptions in several southern provinces would mean that no vote could be registered. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/v4CP2 Tags: Election, Fraud, Minors, Voting Section: Latest News
