SANAA, 21 December 2005 — Dozens of Yemeni pro-democracy activists and opposition politicians appealed to President Ali Abdullah Saleh yesterday to stick to his decision not to stand in next year’s presidential vote.
In a petition message to Saleh, the activists called on Saleh, 63, to honor the promise he announced five months ago to abandon the presidential election in September 2006.
They also asked the long-serving leader not to yield to calls from his General People’s Congress (GPC) party to retract his position.
Last July, Saleh announced that he would not stand in the presidential election next year. The Yemeni president justified his initiative with the need for setting a model for a democratic exchange of power in the Arab world.
But in a move seen by analysts that Saleh had changed his mind and decided not to abandon another term of office, the Yemeni leader was reelected on Dec. 16 as head of the GPC party.
In their appeal, the activists said those who seek Saleh’s retraction from his initiative “only want to turn the president’s pledge into a joke and make fun of us (Yemenis) among other nations.”
The message urged Saleh to “push ahead in strengthening democracy and the peaceful transition of power to win a high standing among the world’s great people.”
Saleh, has been on the helm of power in North Yemen since 1978. When North and South Yemen merged in May 1990, Saleh took over the presidency of the new state of Yemen. In 1999, he was elected for a seven-year tenure in country’s first universal suffrage presidential vote with a 96 percent margin. His term ends next year, but the constitution allows him one more term in office.
