SANA, Yemen —Yemenis flocked to the polls across their battered nation Tuesday to vote in a U.S.-backed, single-candidate election meant to install a new leader to replace the outgoing autocrat.
Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is set to be declared president in the coming days, which will make his predecessor, Ali Abdullah Saleh, the fourth leader to be pushed from power in the Arab Spring uprisings that erupted early last year.
While the voters were largely hopeful — with some waiting in long lines to cast ballots bearing only Hadi’s name — the new leader will face tremendous challenges as he tries to lead the Arab world’s poorest country out of its year-old political crisis, which has shattered the economy, splintered the security forces and allowed al-Qaeda to seize swaths of territory.
The U.S. has played an active role in the transition, in hopes it can head off chaos and ensure cooperation against the country’s active al-Qaeda branch, which has targeted the U.S.
President Barack Obama voiced his support for Hadi before the vote, and the administration’s top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, met Hadi in Yemen over the weekend and said he expected him to be a strong partner.
In taking Saleh’s place, Hadi will face the onerous task of trying to lead Yemen out of its many crises. Yemen was a poor, weakly governed nation before protesters inspired by successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt took to the streets one year ago to call for Saleh’s ouster.
The situation now is much worse. More than 200 protesters have been killed in government crackdowns, and hundreds more have died in armed clashes with security forces. Meanwhile, the country’s economy has collapsed, with unemployment and food prices spiking.
Hadi promised great changes Tuesday, after casting his vote in the capital, Sana.
“This is a qualitative leap for modern Yemen,” he said. “There will be big political, economic and social change, which is the way out of the crisis that has ravaged the country.”
The election, however, masks how many deeply entrenched problems remain unchanged, said Yemen expert Gregory Johnsen of Princeton University.
“There is this sense that Saleh was at the root of all the problems in Yemen and that removing him from the office of the president is going to miraculously solve Yemen’s problems, but it will not,” he said. “None of the issues that were brought to the forefront over the past year have been solved, and all of the players who are intimately involved with them are still involved in politics.”
Saleh used his decades in office to put relatives, confidantes and fellow tribesmen in key places in the government and security apparatus. They remain, meaning Saleh could continue to pull strings in Yemen without being president. Hadi could also face great resistance to reform from these entrenched forces.
Yemen’s army is splintered, with many soldiers more loyal to their commanders than to the state. It remains unclear what leverage Hadi will have to create a unified command.
