President Saleh told me he forged elections of 2006, defected general says

By Nasser Arrabyee

The defected general Ali Muhsen said Monday that President Ali Abdullah Saleh  forged the  presidential elections of 2006 after his rival won.

In the 2006 presidential elections, President Saleh had 78  per cent of the vote while his main rival,  the opposition coalition candidate, Faisal Bin Shamlan had 21 per cent of the vote.   

The elections  was recognized by the opposition and  the international community as " reasonably free, fair and competitive".

" At the end of the day of election, I went to president Saleh in his palace, he  was very sad, he told me the computer made a mistake," general Muhsen told a group of journalists in his office.

 Then , they spent three days to correct that " mistake"  and Saleh was announced as the winner and Bin Shamlan the loser.

" Saleh is still alive, Allah Almighty  may preserve him and give him long life, you can make sure of what I am saying by asking him," said the general to the journalists who were only demanding him to release their colleague Mohammed Sudam, Reuter's reporter, who was kidnapped by the general's soldiers two days ago.

" this is the real story of the 2006 elections, so what constitutional legitimacy he is talking about," the general wonders.

The general promised to release the kidnapped journalist Mohammed Sudam on the evening of Monday.

"it's only today I know that   Mohammed  Sudam is a journalist, I know him only as the translator of the president," he said about the kidnapped journalist.