Yemen election ends Saleh’s 33-year rule

Polls have closed in the presidential election in Yemen, with reports indicating high turnout in many areas despite calls for a boycott from the opposition and deadly violence in the south.As the only candidate in the race, Abd-Rabbou Mansour Hadi, the vice-president, is set to take power, ending the 33-year rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh. The Reuters news agency quoted an official from the election security committee as estimating a turnout of 80 per cent in Tuesday’s vote, although final results will not be known for several days. Turnout was likely to be lower in the south, where the boycott call and security concerns kept many at home. Southerners, who accuse the north of grabbing their resources and discriminating against them, are demanding a divorce from the north with which they fought a civil war in 1994 after political union in 1990.The Election Commission said in a statement that voting was halted in nine southern electoral districts, out of a national total of 301, because of the chaos.Khamis al-Dayani, an election committee official, said nine of up to 300 polling areas in the country had experienced severe disruption.Hadi cast his vote at a polling station near his house in the capital, Sanaa. The station was changed at the last minute because of reports of a bomb threat.