Voters in Yemen headed to the polls on Tuesday to elect a new head of state after 33 years of one-man rule. As the only candidate in the election, the country's vice-president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is expected to oust long-time leader, President Abdullah Saleh.

Tuesday's election is the product of a deal brokered by Yemen's Gulf Arab neighbors in the wake of a year of mass protests and spreading anarchy.

Just hours after voting opened, separatists attacked a polling station in the south-eastern city of Mukalla killing a solider, said a military official. "Gunmen from the Southern Movement tried to storm a polling station, killing a soldier," the official said, adding two gunmen were wounded in the assault.

A blast was reported outside an educational institute in the southern city of Aden, which was to be used as a polling station. One soldier was killed and another injured when unidentified gunmen opened fire on an army patrol nearby. It was unclear if the two incidents were linked.

Meanwhile an unknown group fired a rocket-propelled grenade on another polling station in the same province. Troops also opened fire on an unauthorized anti-election protest march in the southern province of Dalea, killing one protester, a leader from the separatist Southern Movement said.

Southern separatists, seeking independence for the country's southern provinces, oppose Tuesday's vote. They have described the election as a "farce" and called for collective acts of civil disobedience to disrupt the process.

Hopes of a smooth transition

In what was likely to be his last speech as president on Monday, Saleh urged Yemeni's to vote for Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, calling for a smooth transition of power.

"This event comes within the framework of implementing what we adopted for the sake of a peaceful transition of power to lift our good country and steadfast people from the suffocating and bitter crisis which has lasted a whole year," Saleh said

Tuesday's vote is the result of a deal struck by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Supported by the United States, the United Nations and European Union, the deal called for a new constitution and a referendum, paving the way for a multi-party election in two years.

Many Yemenis remain unconvinced, however, that Tuesday's vote constitutes real political transformation, given the vice-President's close links with Saleh and the lack of an alternative candidate.

ccp/jw (AP, Reuters)