Yemen's Saleh calls for voting in presidential election

Outgoing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, currently in the United States for medical treatment, on Monday urged Yemenis to vote for Vice President Abd- Rabbu Mansour Hadi in the upcoming presidential election. "I call for our people to vote for the national consensus presidential candidate Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi," Saleh said in an statement carried by his ruling party's website Almethaq.net. Saleh agreed to step down in return for immunity from prosecution under a UN-backed power transfer deal brokered by neighboring oil-rich Gulf countries and aimed at ending Yemen's months-long unrest. Under the deal, Hadi was nominated by Saleh's ruling party and the opposition coalition as the sole candidate for the Feb. 21 polls. "The upcoming election is a very important historical phase of Yemen, through which we will overcome destructive chaos that affected many of other Arab countries," Saleh said. After 33 years in power, Saleh remains as the honorary president until Hadi is officially elected as the president for a two-year interim period. Last week, Saleh said he would return home to vote for Hadi after the completion of his treatment in New York. He was seriously injured in a bomb attack on his palace on June 3, 2011, and was hospitalized for months in neighboring Saudi Arabia. He left Yemen last month after the parliament approved a law granting him complete immunity from prosecution in accordance to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) deal for power transfer. Washington granted Saleh diplomatic immunity and provided him a limited visa to seek medical treatment in the United States. Despite the political settlement, the GCC deal's immunity clause sparked almost daily nationwide protests demanding Saleh and his aides be prosecuted for "killing people during the one year of protests."