Influential ally abandons Yemen's president

[Guest guest]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/04/us-yemen-saleh-idUSTRE7235IY20110304

Influential ally abandons Yemen's president

SANAA | Fri Mar 4, 2011 2:00pm EST

SANAA (Reuters) - An influential ally of President Ali Abdullah Saleh resigned

from the ruling party on Friday, in another political blow to the embattled

leader as mass protests sweep across the country demanding an end to his 32-year

rule.

Ali Ahmad al-Omrani, a tribal sheikh from the southern al-Baida province, told

tens of thousands of protesters at a late night rally in front of Sanaa

University that he would resign from Saleh's General People's Congress Party

(GPC).

Saleh, a U.S. ally against al Qaeda, is struggling to quell protests whose

numbers have swelled in recent days. Protesters say they are frustrated with

widespread corruption and soaring unemployment in a country where 40 percent of

the 23 million people live on $2 a day or less and a third face chronic hunger.

Omrani's resignation comes a week after nine parliament members from the GPC

resigned in protest of the use violence against anti-government demonstrations,

in which at least 24 people have died.

Yemen was teetering on the brink of failed statehood even before recent

protests, with Saleh struggling to cement a truce with Shi'ite rebels in the

north and quell a budding secessionist rebellion in the south.

Opposition officials said on Friday Saleh had rejected a transition plan to

democracy that included reforms to the electoral system and the president

leaving power by the end of 2011. Saleh has instead offered to resign when his

term ends in 2013 and adopt a less-ambitious political reform package.

(Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis; Editing by Graff)

[Guest guest]

So who takes over once the current government falls? What makes these people think the new government will be any different?

In a message dated 3/4/2011 6:11:04 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, no_reply writes:

Yemen was teetering on the brink of failed statehood even before recent protests, with Saleh struggling to cement a truce with Shi'ite rebels in the north and quell a budding secessionist rebellion in the south.