Yemen opposition: protests against amendments

Yemen's opposition calls for protests in objection to allowing President Ali Abdullah Saleh to rule for life.

Middle East Online

'Year of peaceful struggle' SANAA - Yemen's opposition called for protests, in a statement received Sunday, after parliament dismissed its objections to constitutional changes that could allow President Ali Abdullah Saleh to rule for life. The opposition Common Forum urged for "mobilising the people's struggle" and "instantly organising protests... to mark the new year (2011) as the year of peaceful struggle until achieving victory." The calls came after some 170 members of Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party voted Saturday in favour of constitutional amendments that could see the president rule for life, despite opposition protests and calls by the United States for a vote delay. "The regime has began producing corrupt and authoritarian policies outside the constitution and the law," said the Common Forum, which groups Al-Islah (Reform) Party, the main Islamist opposition, the Yemeni Socialist Party and other smaller factions. In power since 1978, Saleh was elected for the first time in 1999 by direct universal suffrage for a term of seven years. His second term, which began in 2006 expires in 2013. The proposed constitutional amendments stipulate cancelling the limit of two consecutive terms for which a president can be elected and reducing the presidential term from its current seven years to five. The vote, attended by only two independent MPs who called for postponing it, sparked an opposition protest outside parliament on Saturday. If the ruling party-dominated parliament passes the amendment, Saleh could become president for life of the Arabian peninsula nation. In line with the constitution the amendments will be discussed in detail on March 1 and then they will be submitted to a referendum to be held simultaneously with parliamentary polls on April 27, a GPC member said. On Friday the United States urged Yemen's parliament not to go ahead with any move to amend the constitution Saleh's opponents accuse the 68-year-old president of grooming his eldest son Ahmed, who heads the Republican Guard, an elite unit of the army, to succeed him.