Replace my portraits: Saleh

SANAA - Agence France-Presse

A man carries a poster of outgoing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, as he walks along an alley in Sanaa. REUTERS photo

Outgoing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has ordered his pictures to be replaced by those of his vice president, who is due to take his place later this month, state news agency Saba reported Feb. 15.

“President Ali Abdullah Saleh has ordered all authorities and institutions” public and private, across the country, “to take down his pictures from public squares, streets, buildings and offices and raise those of Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi,” Saba reported. Referendum-like elections will be held in Yemen Feb. 21 to approve Hadi, the sole candidate, as a consensus president for a two-year term, as per a Gulf-brokered deal which Saleh signed in November after months of pressure. Under the deal, which came in response to an uprising that began in January 2011, Saleh, who has ruled Yemen for three decades, will hand power to Hadi, a southerner, in return for a promise of immunity from prosecution.

Saleh has been in New York since late last month to receive medical treatment for wounds suffered in a June bombing at the presidential palace in Sanaa. State news agency Saba reported last week that Saleh had told visitors he would “participate” in the poll.