The call came through a Thursday statement, which envisioned "a roadmap for the President [
President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh's]... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ...
departure before the end of this year," AFP reported.
The petition urged a "peaceful transition of power."
Saleh has already been in office for 33 years with several opposition members arguing that his long-promised reforms have not materialized.
Dozens of people have died during the security forces' crackdown on anti-government protests that began to sweep the country in January.
Government forces recently intensified their armed attacks on demonstrators, apprehending five political and human rights
... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you...
activists, as well as an educator and an engineer in the south.
To appease the people, Saleh made more pledge-ridden remarks in early January and promised to leave office at the end of his term in 2013 and not to hand over the reins to his son.
He, however, vowed late last month to cling onto power until his last "drop of blood" despite growing mass rallies, which he has described as "a conspiracy against Yemen's unity and territorial integrity."