Upcoming Yemeni Elections May Have Single Candidate

According to Voice of America, Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi may be the only candidate in Yemen’s February presidential election, an idea that is drawing wide support from opposition parties and Yemen’s diplomatic partners. The Joint Meeting Parties, Yemen’s opposition coalition, views Hadi as a neutral figure who played no role in President Saleh’s violent crackdown on opposition protesters. Ibrahim Sharqieh, deputy director of the Brookings Doha Center, said, “Hadi worked with the opposition closely and earned their trust.” Yemen’s interior minister also ordered the release of all detainees held in connection with protests, according to state news agency Saba.

Ton Finn asks if the city of Taiz will become the Benghazi of Yemen, with opposition potentially using the city to violently leverage government concessions. Finn writes, “While the political negotiations go in the north, the battle rages on in Taiz, the outcome of which may determine the fate of Yemen.” He continues, “A lynchpin city straddling north and south, with an international airport and access to the Red Sea, Taiz would certainly make a decent makeshift capital for the opposition, one where they could organize and recruit supporters.” Kelly Gilbride documents the extreme toll that Yemen’s political crisis is taking on families throughout the country, saying that “nearly a fifth of [Yemenis] surveyed had put their children to work after withdrawing them from school.”