Some 5.5 million Yemenis to vote for new president

Some 5.5 million Yemeni citizens will cast their votes on Thursday to elect a new Yemeni president in the first presidential elections in Yemen.

AFP said the Yemeni authorities have qualified 55,000 soldiers to ensure the best voting operations, while the two candidates for the presidency, current President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his rival, Najib Qahtan al-Shaabi, downplayed the importance of the boycott of the election advocated by the Yemeni opposition, after the Yemeni parliament refused the opposition's candidate for president, Yemeni Socialist Party Secretary General Ali Saleh Abbad.

President Saleh has been the president of Yemen since its establishment in 1990, after the declaration of unity between the northern and southern parts of Yemen. The Yemeni parliament reelected President Saleh in 1994.