GAZA CITY, 14 November 2004 — A day after US President George W. Bush promised a Palestinian state in four years, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei yesterday said a presidential election would be held by Jan. 9. Palestinians also appealed for international help to organize the election and jailed intifada leader Marwan Barghouti indicated he would run for president.
“We lost a big leader but we have to continue,” Qorei said, also urging a resumption of peace negotiations with Israel.
“I am saying to the US administration, to President Bush, to the Israelis and to the world, ‘Now is the period in which we should be more serious’,” Qorei told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Presidential, legislative and municipal elections in the occupied territories had been due to take place in early 2005, but with Arafat’s death on Thursday the date for the presidential vote has been brought forward.
However, the central election committee said a precise date had not yet been set.
Rauhi Fattuh, former parliamentary speaker, was sworn in as interim leader in the wake of Arafat’s death for a period of 60 days until elections are held, in line with the Palestinian basic law, or constitution.
But the election committee said in a statement it would need international help to conduct voter registration in occupied and annexed East Jerusalem as Israel had previously blocked the process by arresting its staff and confiscating registration materials.
Committee Secretary-General Rami Hamdallah “called on the international community to ask the Israeli authorities to allow the CEC to conduct poll-related activities in Jerusalem,” which is home to between 220,000 to 250,000 Palestinians.
Last month, election officials charged that Israel was trying to prevent voters from registering through intimidation, with police seizing voter lists and in one case, firing tear gas into two registration centers.
Barghouti’s decision to run for president could signal the start of a spirited campaign to replace Arafat and would pit the young guard of the Palestinian activists, represented by Barghouti, against the older politicians, who will likely throw their support behind former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, the interim leader.
Barghouti, a former West Bank leader of Arafat’s Fatah movement, is popular among Palestinians, including the rank-and-file of Fatah. He once had close ties to Israeli peace activists.
Many analysts believe Barghouti would have the best chance of unifying disparate Palestinian factions, reining in violence and possibly restarting peace efforts with Israel.
“When he takes that decision (to run), we will be near him and we will support him,” said Ahmed Ghneim, a senior Fatah leader and another member of the young guard. “I think he has the best chances of anybody in the movement to win the elections.”
However, Barghouti is currently serving multiple life terms in an Israeli prison after being convicted of involvement in attacks that killed four Israelis and a Greek monk.
