Voters in Yemen went to the polls today to select a new president, officially ending the 33-year rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh. Only one candidate is on the ballot: Saleh’s vice president, Abed Rabbo Mansour al-Hadi. He was nominated in a deal between the ruling party and formal opposition parties. Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkul Karman hailed the vote as a step to building a new Yemen.

Tawakkul Karman: “This is the day of holy happiness. This the day of victory. Now we are officially announcing the end of Ali Abdullah Saleh’s era. Thanks to God, he is gone. 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.”

The new Yemeni government is expected to have close military ties to the United States. President Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, said a number of U.S. officials would visit Yemen to help restructure Yemen’s military.