Yemen MPs meet on emergency law, youths appeal
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MPs met on Wednesday to vote on the imposition of a state of emergency in unrest-swept Yemen, the scene of deadly protests demanding the end of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule.
"A vote in favour is equivalent to approving the massacre of the innocent," demonstrators camped at a square near Sanaa University since February 21 said in an appeal to the deputies.
The President late on Tuesday invited Yemen's youths spearheading the protests to take part in an "open, truthful and transparent dialogue away from narrow partisan interests, prioritising the country's interests."
Saleh said he "sympathises" with the youths' demands and their "legitimate aspirations," the state news agency Saba reported, quoting an official in the President's office.
The embattled Saleh, who has ruled for more than three decades, announced the state of emergency last Friday, hours after regime loyalists in the capital gunned down 52 demonstrators near the university.
To take effect, the emergency law bill needs the approval of a majority in the 301-seat Parliament. A quorum for a vote was reached although 141 MPs boycotted on Wednesday's Session.
Saleh's General People's Congress holds 170 seats in parliament, of whom between 40 and 50 members have quit the ruling party in protest at the government's violent crackdown on protesters, according to MPs.
On Tuesday, an offer from Saleh to quit by January failed to appease the escalating opposition over the past two months.
Saleh, who had previously said he would stay in office until his term runs out in September 2013 but not run again, has offered to quit by January after a Parliamentary poll, according to a senior official.
His regime has been hit by a wave of defections in the ranks of the military, among influential tribal chiefs, Muslim clerics and senior diplomats as well as within Saleh's own party.
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