SANAA (AFP) - Yemen is to hold a snap presidential election on February 21 in keeping with an accord which led to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's resignation, his deputy said in a decree published on Saturday. Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, to whom Saleh has handed over power under the Gulf-mediated accord, signed the decree which brings forward the election that had initially been due to take place in 2013. The early poll follows a 90-day transition period which kicked off with the signing of the power transfer deal in Riyadh last Wednesday following several months of deadly anti-regime protests in Yemen. A bloody crackdown on anti-Saleh demonstrations across Yemen since January has left hundreds of people dead.