Yemen’s Leader Pledges Not to Seek Re-election

[The Straight Story]

Yemen’s Leader Pledges Not to Seek Re-election

SANA, Yemen — President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen said Wednesday that he would not run for re-election when his term ends in 2013. The announcement was a stunning concession to protesters and another reverberation of the popular anger that has rocked the Arab world in recent weeks.

Mr. Saleh, an American ally who has been in office for 32 years, said that his eldest son, Ahmed, who heads the elite Republican Guard, would not seek the presidency either. Opponents of the government had feared that Mr. Saleh would try to pass power to his son.

But it remained to be seen whether the authoritarian leader would follow through on his promise. In 2005, Mr. Saleh announced that he would not seek another term, only to change his mind a year later. He was elected in 2006 to a seven-year term.

Opposition lawmakers, an eclectic group dominated by Islamists, expressed skepticism. “We have heard what he said before,” said Mohamed Al Qubati, a spokesman for the Joint Meeting Parties, an umbrella group of opposition parties.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/world/middleeast/03yemen.html?_r=2