Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh called for the third parliamentary elections since reunification in 1990 to pass off without incident and free from the violence that has marred previous polls. "I hope Sunday's elections pass off safely and peacefully," Saleh said in a rare press conference at the converted warehouse headquarters of the Supreme Commission for Election and Referendum (SCER). The president called for the polls to be "violence-free and a day without weapons," in reference to the heavily armed Yemeni population -- an estimated 60 million weapons among some 20 million people.

"I call on people to elect the proper people to best represent them," he said, flanked by SCER officials and a team of bodyguards.

The republic's main 22 political parties have signed a 32-point "code of honour" in an effort to avoid the bloodshed that marred elections in 1993 and 1997.

The electoral process was temporarily halted last week in a constituency 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of Sanaa after a failed assassination attempt by a candidate for the main Islamist opposition Al-Islah party on the governor, a member of Saleh's ruling General People's Congress (GPC).

A Sanaa-based Western diplomat said that while the situation was seemingly calm, there were still a "number of potential flashpoints in Sanaa and particularly Taiz," 180 kilometres (110 miles) south of the capital.

The president put the declining number of female candidates down to the nature of Yemeni society, the males of which "refuse to give up their seats for women."

The problem of female emancipation was however endemic throughout the Arab world, Saleh said, but noted Yemeni women held some senior public roles.

There are two female MPs, two members of the Shura consultative council, one female ambassador and one woman minister.

Women do play a bigger role behind the scenes of the political parties, with Al-Islah employing 13 on its central committee even though it rules out female candidates.

But women's rights advocates struggle even to make it onto the agenda in large swathes of the rugged hinterland, run by heavily armed tribes where the central government has scant control.

SCER chairman Khald al-Sharif earlier told reporters that just 11 women will contest the 301 one-seat constituencies.

Some 1,326 candidates, 991 from political parties and 405 independents, will run for office in the third legislative elections since political pluralism was introduced after the unification of north and south Yemens in 1990.

GPC candidates number 296, while 212 are standing for Al-Islah and 107 for the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP).

The GPC currently holds 226 seats in parliament, with Al-Islah and the YSP holding 62 and two seats respectively. The remainder is taken up by independents and members of the Baath Party.

PHOTO CAPTION

Yemenis go to the polls in two days for the third parliamentary elections since reunification in 1990 amid government accusations that Islamist opposition parties have links with terror groups(AFP/Khaled Fazaa)