Qahtan Muhammad al-Shaabi (; 1920 – 7 July 1981) was the first

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

of the

People's Republic of South Yemen South Yemen, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, abbreviated to Democratic Yemen, was a country in South Arabia that existed in what is now southeast Yemen from 1967 until its unification with the Yemen Arab Republic in 199 ...

. Al-Shaabi's National Liberation Front (NLF) political organisation wrested control of the country from the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

and won political supremacy over the opposition

Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen The Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (FLOSY; ) was an Arab nationalist military organization operating in the Federation of South Arabia (a British protectorate; now Southern Yemen) in the 1960s. As the British tried to exit, Abd ...

(FLOSY) in 1967. On 30 November 1967, the

Protectorate of South Arabia The Protectorate of South Arabia (), also known as the Eastern Aden Protectorate, consisted of various states located at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula under treaties of protection with Britain. The area of the former protectorate bec ...

was declared independent as the People's Republic of South Yemen, with al-Shaabi as President. Al-Shaabi held the presidency until 22 June 1969, when a hard-line

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

group from within his own NLF seized control. He was replaced by

Salim Rubai Ali Salim Rubaya Ali (; 17 June 1934 – 26 June 1978), commonly known by his nickname Salemin (), was a Yemeni Maoist politician and revolutionary who served as the second head of state of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) from ...

and jailed, then placed under house arrest until the 1970s, and lived quietly in Aden from his release until his death in 1981. Al-Shaabi was originally an agricultural officer from

Lahej Lahij or Lahej (), formerly called Al-Hawtah, is a city and an area located between Ta'izz and Aden in Yemen. From the 18th to the 20th century, its rulers were of the Abdali branch of the Al-Sallami tribe who trace their lineage to one of the 1 ...

who fled to

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

in 1958. In 1962, he was announced the head of a National Liberation Army, formed in Egypt, and in 1963 or 1965, he was chosen the founding head of the NLF. Upon independence in 1967, he was the best-known NLF leader and the only one over 40 years old. As part of the

Nasserist Nasserism ( ) is an Arab nationalist and Arab socialist political ideology based on the thinking of Gamal Abdel Nasser, one of the two principal leaders of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, and Egypt's second President. Spanning the domestic a ...

nationalist right-leaning faction of the NLF, he fought the Marxist left wing for a year and a half until his ouster in the 22 June

Corrective Move The Corrective Move (), also referred to as the 22 June Corrective Move or as the Glorious Corrective Move, was an internal bloodless coup that took place on 22 June 1969, which led to the takeover of the ruling National Front (NF) party of So ...

, also known as the Glorious Corrective Move, in 1969. The government declared in 1990 that the deposition was "in the absence of true democracy". Qahtan's son Najib Qahtan al-Shaabi ran unsuccessfully against President

Ali Abdullah Saleh Ali Abdullah Saleh Affash (21 March 1947There is a dispute as to Saleh's date of birth, some saying that it was on 21 March 1942. See: However, by Saleh's own confession (an interview recorded in a YouTube video), he was born in 1947.4 Decembe ...

in the

1999 Yemeni presidential election Direct presidential elections were held in Yemen for the first time on 23 September 1999.Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) ''Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I'', p301 Candidates had to be approved by at least 10% ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaabi, Qahtan Muhammad al- 1920 births 1981 deaths Nasserists Presidents of South Yemen Yemeni Arab nationalists Yemeni socialists People from Lahij Governorate South Yemen independence activists Leaders ousted by a coup Muslim socialists