Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said he would return from New York to his country to vote in presidential polls.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said he would return from New York to his country to vote in presidential polls.

Saleh, who is under medical treatment in the US, “will return and the General People's Congress party wants him back to attend and supervise the elections, and to peacefully hand power over”, Abdo al-Janadi, a member of Saleh's GPC party, told reporters.

State news agency Saba reported on Tuesday that Saleh had told visitors he would "participate" in the vote on February 21, in which Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi is the sole candidate.
He said he is in "good health," it added.

However, US officials had said Saleh would not return to Yemen until after the referendum-like election, stipulated by a Gulf plan to confirm Hadi as a president for a two-year term.