People in Yemen are voting to elect a new president to replace veteran leader Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Voters are expected to rubber-stamp Vice-President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi - the only candidate in Tuesday's poll.

Long queues formed early in the morning at polling stations in the capital Sanaa, protected by tight security measures.The poll comes after a year of violent anti-government protests in the Arabian peninsula's poorest country.

Violence continued on Monday, with at least one polling station attacked in the south. One person is said to have been killed.

'End of Saleh era'

The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, in Sanaa, says the situation there is peaceful, and there is a lot of enthusiasm at the prospect of getting rid of the old president.

The separatist Southern Movement and the northern Shia rebels have called on people to boycott the poll.

But the main supporters of the uprising that began in January 2011 are backing Mr Hadi, whose election posters are prominently displayed in Sanaa.

He is from the south himself and has called for dialogue with the rebels there.

Yemeni human rights activist Tawakkol Karman, joint winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, said as she voted that the election marks the end of President Saleh's 33-year long reign.

"Today we are building the new Yemen, we are building the democratic and happy Yemen that all of the youth and women have dreamed about," she said.

But the country still faces multiple challenges - an ongoing rebellion in large chunks of the country, al-Qaeda militants, widespread malnutrition among children and severe drought.

Husam Al-Sharjabi, a 37-year-old protester who recently formed the al-Watan opposition party, acknowledged in a BBC interview that al-Qaeda posed a real threat.

"It's a threat that has been exaggerated, but it must be taken seriously," he said.

"We need to take a multi-faceted approach involving defence, diplomacy and development, to minimise the opportunities for these groups to recruit from the poor and disenfranchised."

The election follows a deal brokered by Yemen's Gulf Arab neighbours.

Mr Saleh, who has been in office for 33 years, signed the agreement to step down - but only once a new president has been elected.

On Monday, he urged Yemenis to vote for Mr Hadi to ensure "a peaceful transition of power".

According to the election rules, there is no minimum turnout for the vote to be valid.

If only one person turns out to vote for him, Mr Hadi will still win.

More than 12 million people are eligible to vote. Ten million registered for the last vote in 2006 in addition to 2.2 million new voters.

The new president is due to stay in office for two years, when a further round of presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled.

(BBC news)