Yemen’s opposition meets to elect council to take power

Ali Abdallah Saleh Yemen's opposition elected an umbrella council on Wednesday aiming to take over power from embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in Riyadh for 10 weeks recovering from a bomb blast. A 143-member "National Council for the Forces of the Peaceful Revolution" was elected by around 800 representatives of diverse opposition groups, an AFP correspondent said.
Those elected will choose 20 members to make up an executive committee. "The National Council will lead the forces of the revolution, determined to stand strong until Ali Abdullah Saleh's departure," said a key opposition leader, Sultan al-Atwani. The council groups the parliamentary parties of the Common Forum, which includes the influential Islamist party Al-Islah (reform), with the young protesters at the forefront of anti-regime protests since January.
In addition to those groups, the new council also includes representatives of civil society, members of the secessionist Southern Movement, and the northern Shiite Huthi rebels, as well as independent activists. "In forming this council, the opposition would sign the death certificate of the Gulf proposal" for a power transfer, a spokesman of Saleh's ruling General People's Congress (GPC), Tariq al-Shami, warned before the election. "They prove they are not for a peaceful solution but are trying to overthrow the constitutional legitimacy," he told AFP.
The president who has been in office since 1978 and whose current term runs out in 2013, insists that the Gulf proposal should be implemented "in accordance with the constitution." The deal proposed by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council in April stipulates that Saleh submit his resignation to parliament 30 days after passing power to his vice president, in return for immunity from prosecution. It tasks the opposition with forming a national unity government, in which the GPC and opposition would be equally represented. Presidential elections would follow two months later. The deal faltered in May after Saleh kept delaying, and in early June he was flown to Saudi Arabia for treatment after being wounded in a bomb attack on his Sanaa presidential compound. The opposition meeting was held at a hall in Sanaa University amid tight security provided by the army's First Armoured Division led by General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who defected to the opposition in March. In a sign of high tensions, the regime had threatened to shell the square outside the university where anti-Saleh protesters have camped since February if the council was formed, according to activists at the square. Ahmar's troops are deployed to protect the protesters, of whom 200 people have been killed nationwide in clashes with security forces and Saleh supporters since the end of January.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Tuesday he would return home “soon” from Saudi Arabia where he is recovering from wounds he sustained in an assassination attempt and attacked his opponents of exploiting protesters demanding his departure.
In a speech broadcast live to a gathering of tribesmen loyal to him, President Saleh said, “See you soon in the capital Sanaa.”
He lambasted the parliamentary opposition as figures of “narrow interests and lack of thinking,” and accused them of “stealing” the slogans of young protesters who have been calling for his ouster since January. “There is a political party in the opposition whose slogan claims it is the party of Islam. What Islam? They have distorted Islam,” he said in reference to leading opposition party, the Islamist Islah party. President Saleh, who appeared in good shape, was addressing thousands of loyalist tribesmen at a meeting to “help resolve the crisis” in Yemen, according to state news agency Saba.
He was flown to Saudi Arabia in early June for treatment after being wounded in a bomb attack on his Sanaa presidential compound
A member of President Saleh’s ruling General People’s Congress party said this week that senior Islah member Hamid Al Ahmar, who owns Yemen’s Sabafon mobile network, was the “prime suspect” in the assassination attempt. Mr. Ahmar has denied involvement. Sitting at a desk, President Saleh stopped short of accusing Islah of being behind the attempt on his life.
In a markedly stronger voice than the last time Yemenis saw him, President Saleh said he was prepared to hand over power “via elections, not via coups.” “We have no objection to a peaceful and smooth transition of power; we have no problem to transfer power to Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. It would make no difference for us to transfer power, but will you remove gunmen from the streets...will you stop blocking roads and will you become good citizens who respect the law and order like others.?"
His tenacity has frustrated thousands of Yemenis who thought they had seen the last of him when he flew to Riyadh for medical treatment following the bomb blast at his palace mosque in June.
While long-time leaders in Tunisia and Egypt have bowed to popular demands they quit, Mr. Saleh has proved a shrewd political survivor, defying international pressure and thrice backing out of a Gulf-brokered deal to ease him out of office.