Qahtan Muhammad al-Shaabi (Arabic: قحطان محمد الشعبي; 1920[1] – 7 July 1981[1][2]) was the first President of the People's Republic of South Yemen.

Al-Shaabi's National Liberation Front (NLF) political organisation wrested control of the country from the British and won political supremacy over the opposition Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (FLOSY) in 1967.

Al-Shaabi held the presidency until 22 June 1969, when a hard-line Marxist group from within his own NLF seized control.

[1][2] He was replaced by Salim Rubai Ali and jailed, then placed under house arrest until the 1970s,[2] and lived quietly in Aden from his release until his death in 1981.

As part of the Nasserist 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, also known as the Glorious Corrective Move, in 1969.