By Agencies

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Vote counting is under way in Yemen, a day after a presidential election that is expected to confirm Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the current vice president, as the country's new leader.

Electoral officials said on Wednesday that voter turnout reached 60 per cent nationwide, despite threats of violence and boycott calls in some parts of the Arabian peninsula nation.

Votes are being counted manually and results are expected within two days, although they can take up to 10 days under Yemeni law.

Hadi, the 66-year-old former deputy to Yemen's long-time leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, was the lone candidate in the elections as part a US-backed one-candidate election.

Saleh agreed to step down after months of anti-government protests and clashes across the violence-wracked country.

More than 10 million Yemenis were eligible to vote in the referendum-like election.

The poll was marred by violence with 10 people killed across the country's south, most of them in the port city of Aden.

The voting percentage was low in most of the country’s south with turnout running at 50 per cent in Aden and between 30 to 40 per cent across other southern regions, officials said.

The election was backed by the Common Forum parliamentary opposition and youth groups who had led the uprising against Saleh.

However, two major opposition groups, the Southern Movement as well as northern Shia rebels, boycotted the polls.

Mohammed al-Qadhi, Yemeni correspondent for Emirati newspaper, National, said that deposed president Saleh was planning to make a comeback.

"Spokesman of Saleh party said that former president is definitely coming back so that he can participate in the inauguration of the new president," al-Qadhi said.

"He also said that Saleh was going to lead the party and that there was nothing in the GCC deal that prevented him from running again in coming elections.

"But he said that Saleh is not ready for any other post and will help in creating leaders of the future."