Thousands rallied in the Yemeni capital on Friday to back a single-candidate presidential election planned for later this month that has sparked protests in the south, an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent reported.The demonstrators, who gathered in Sanaa's Change Square -- epicenter of a year of protests against veteran President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
-- rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud in favor of the poll in which Vice President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi will be the sole candidate.
"February 21 is the day on which Yemen will be reborn," read one slogan printed on a large picture of Hadi brandished by demonstrators.
"We have all agreed that Hadi will rule for our country's independence," they chanted.
"Hadi, take the key, the slaughterer's rule has ended!" they shouted, referring to the hundreds of people killed in festivities with the security forces since nationwide protests erupted in January last year.
The election is the one of the centerpieces of a Gulf-brokered deal Saleh signed in November with the parliamentary opposition, under which he is to hand power to Hadi after the vote in return for a promise of immunity from prosecution.
Unlike the poll, the immunity pledge remains deeply controversial with the Change Square protesters.
"Our demand will not change, we will not accept anything but a trial," they chanted.
Hadi himself hails from the formerly independent south of Yemen, but the single-candidate election has proved controversial in the restive region.
On Thursday, security forces rubbed out two people protesting against the vote in the southern town of Daleh, witnesses said.
Activists of the Southern Movement say the election fails to meet their aspirations for autonomy or renewed independence for the region.
Some factions of the movement have been campaigning for a boycott. Its hardline pro-independence wing, led by former southern leader Ali Salem al-Baidh, has called on supporters to disrupt the poll.