President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh... 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. ...
will stay until his presidential term expires in 2013.
In a statement by the ruling party which came after a meeting President-for-Life Saleh
... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence...
had with members of the GPC, it discussed the ongoing political crisis and affirmed Saleh's right to stay in power. The statement renewed the calls for the opposition coalition, the Joint Meeting Party, JMP, to resume dialogue for the sake of the country.
President Saleh has been facing escalating protests since mid February demanding the fall of Saleh's regime.