Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi took the constitutional oath to become Yemen's new president on Saturday, formally removing long-term leader Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Yemen's electoral commission on Friday officially announced that former vice president Abed Rabo Mansour Hadi won the single-candidate presidential election.

The vote was part of a US-sponsored power transitional deal drafted by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf nations. Mohammed Hussein al-Hakimi, head of the body that oversaw Tuesday's election, said that 6.6 million people cast ballots out of 10 million registered voters.

More than 99 percent of the over 6 million votes cast went to Hadi. Some 15,974 voters marked their ballots to indicate that they did not support the vice president, al-Hakimi said. The only official option on the ballot was to vote "yes" for Hadi.

Change of power

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner called the election "a positive step forward" and said "it speaks to the fact that Yemenis are ready to move on to their future."

Hadi is set to take the reigns of power after months of uncertainty about whether or not Saleh would actually leave office. Saleh, who was injured in a rocket attack in June 2011, returned to Yemen to attend Hadi's inauguration ceremony after receiving medical treatment in the US.

Saleh is the fourth Arab leader to leave power in the wake of the so-called Arab Spring. Tunisia's Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Libya's Moammar Gadhafi were all forced from power in popular uprisings. Gadhafi was killed by rebel forces during Libya's civil war.

ccp/slk/rc (AP, Reuters)