Outgoing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has formally handed over power to his vice-president, the winner of an uncontested campaign to replace him after 33 years of one-man rule.

During a ceremony in the capital Sanaa on Monday, Saleh congratulated Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, his successor, and said he hoped for a peaceful transition of power.

"All of Yemen's proud citizens are behind him," Saleh said, before handing Hadi a Yemeni flag he called the "banner of the revolution".

"The responsibilities on the shoulders of the new president are immense, but we are confident that with our support he will succeed."

Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Sanaa, said the atmosphere was tense, with Prime Minister Mohammed Basindawa boycotting the ceremony and protesters in the streets saying Hadi should not be seen with Saleh.

"Saleh is not really talking as someone who is going to leave power, he is talking as someone who is still a leader," Ahelbarra said.

That will not sit well with those who want to see a true transition and other nations that negotiated Saleh's departure, who want him "to understand that from this particular moment he has to completely disappear from the political scene," Ahelbarra said.

Entering 'complicated and difficult period'

Hadi said that Yemen faced a "complicated and difficult period" and that the country needed "cooperation" to carry out the terms of a deal brokered by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations that would see a new president elected in two years.
Saleh, who has steered events in Yemen through his loyalists and extended family and is still seen as controlling the country's affairs, said he would support and stand by Hadi.

Hadi, who took the oath of office on Saturday, received 99 per cent of the 6.6 million votes cast in what was arguably a non-optional referendum: The only option on the ballots was a "yes" vote for Hadi. About 25,000 ballots were invalid, the government said.

PHOTO CAPTION

Yemen's newly elected president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi takes oath at the parliament in Sanaa February 25, 2012.

Al-Jazeera