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Protests erupt in Yemen to demand ouster of president

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"I have no doubt that what happened in Tunisia would affect some other Arab countries as their leaders, who have been in power for more than 20 years and ruled with a complete absence of justice, spread of unemployment, lack of democracy and enlarging gap between wealthy and poor people," Bafadhl said.

Protesters are seen on the streets of Sanaa, capital of Yemen, Jan. 27, 2011. Around 15,000 protesters took to streets in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Thursday, calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. [Yin Ke/Xinhua]

"Yemen comes at the forefront of the Arab countries, which is likely to witness a large-scale unrest soon, especially after the ruling party unilaterally approved constitutional amendments which could turn Yemeni into dictatorship," he said.

Since the beginning of this year, tensions escalated between the opposition and ruling party after parliamentary members of the latter unilaterally approved constitutional amendments on Jan. 1, which could make Yemen's leader Ali Abdullah Saleh the country's president for life.

Some 165 parliamentary members of the ruling party's General people's Congress (GPC) voted in favor of the constitutional amendments and referred them to a special committee in the parliament to consider the articles which will be finally approved on March 1 according to the constitution.

The would-be amendments would eliminate the limited two consecutive presidential terms, and put the new presidential term for five years, in which president has the constitutional right to candidate himself for unlimited future terms, the ruling party's website said.

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