SANAA, Yemen — Yemen's election commission says 65 percent of registered voters in the country cast their ballot for Vice President Abed Rabo Mansour Hadi in the single-candidate election for the nation's new president.
Judge Mohammed al-Hakimi said Friday that 6.6 million votes out of a potential 10.2 million went to Hadi, who will replace outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Hadi is expected to be sworn in Saturday.
He will take over after months of uncertainty over whether the Saleh would step down in the face of months of popular protests that plunged the nation into a political crisis.
The large turnout in the referendum gives Hadi a popular mandate to tackle Yemen's many problems, including uprooting Saleh's regime, fighting al-Qaida militants, and grinding poverty.
