Yemeni parliament ratifies Saleh's nomination for presidency

The Yemeni Parliament on Wednesday ratified the nomination of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh for the presidential elections. The parliament, on the other hand, refused to nominate the opposition's main candidate, Ali Saleh Abbad, who is the secretary general of the Yemeni Socialist Party.

AFP said that Saleh won the votes of some 181 Parliament members, of which Abbad won only seven votes.

According to the Yemeni constitution every candidate should at least get the votes of 10% of the parliament's members, whose total number is estimated at 301, for his nomination to be accepted for the presidential elections due on September 23.

The Yemeni parliament also approved the nomination of independent candidate Najib Qahtan al-Shaabi, son of the first president of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen in 1967.