The General People's Congress, the former ruling party which represents half of the current power-sharing government in Yemen, is discussing proposals to elect the second deputy head, Abdul Karim
al-Eryani, as the new head of the party, alahale.net reported, quoting a statement by a senior leader in the party on Tuesday.

Al-Eryani will replace former president of the republic and the current head of the GPC, Ali Abdullah Saleh, in a move which the leader said comes as a compromise between Saleh and his first deputy, President Abdrabu Mansour Hadi, the website said.

According to the party's bylaw, president of the republic must be head of the party, but Hadi, the first deputy head, was earlier reported to have refused to be elected as head of the GPC.

Al-Eryani will be installed at the 8th conference of the party, it said, pointing out that preparations have got underway for the conference.

Saleh chaired Tuesday a periodical meeting of the party which Hadi did not attend. The meeting formed a panel to prepare for the conference and al-Eryani was asked to chair the meetings of the secretariat general.

Al-Eryani is one of the moderate leaders inside the GPC and has played a key role in the political reconciliation after the 2011 crisis.
Recently, disagreements between Saleh's family and Hadi started to grow after military commanders rebelled against Hadi's decrees sacking them.

Meantime, Hadi is facing pressure to accept to be elected as head of the GPC or resign to avoid the current problems inside the party.

Saleh has been head of the GPC since it was founded in 1982