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Palestinian Elections: Voting for hope
Fewer than expected Palestinians voted in the Palestinian presidential elections -- and those that did may be disappointed, writes Graham Usher in Ramallah
"We extend our hands to our neighbours. We are ready for peace -- peace based on justice. We hope that their response will be positive," said Mahmoud Abbas, better known as Abu Mazen, the day after his victory in the Palestinian Authority presidential elections. It was a sincere wish. But already the morning after felt colder than the night before.
Exit polls had proclaimed Abbas winning 70 per cent of the vote in a 70 per cent turn out, triggering motorcades of his Fatah movement taking to the streets of Ramallah amid fusillades of celebratory gunfire. In fact, Abbas won 62 per cent of vote in a turn out of 45 per cent, an abstention of the Islamist Hamas movement was swift to claim as a "victory" for its call to boycott the presidential poll.
Nor was Abbas's stature enhanced by the behaviour of certain of his supporters, who fearing a low turn out and the Hamas claim pressured the Central Election Commission to extend the voting time by two hours and then brought in busloads of people to vote on the basis of their ID cards rather than the official electoral register. The fraud did not affect the outcome. But it did show just how reluctant Fatah is to give up its domination as the PA's ruling party.
Still, coming some 40 percentage points ahead of his nearest challenger (the independent pro-democracy activist Mustafa Barghouti), few would deny the election delivered Abbas a mandate for his leadership and political programme: immediate renewal of negotiations with Israel, further Palestinian reform and an end to the four-year armed intifada. All three present challenges but the most important is the first, says PA cabinet minister, Ghassan Khatib.
"The basic condition for progress is for the United States to invite the two sides immediately to resume negotiations on implementing the roadmap. For the Palestinians this means further reform and a 100 per cent effort to reduce Palestinian violence. For the Israelis it means ending their violence against our people, stopping the expansion of Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land and lifting the sanctions and restrictions that are destroying our economy. Anything less will be insufficient".
But Israel and the US are offering less. While Ariel Sharon is prepared to "coordinate" certain security arrangements for his plan to withdraw from most of Gaza and four settlements in the West Bank, "disengagement" remains a unilateral Israeli decision.
Read More
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/725/fr1.htm
Exit polls had proclaimed Abbas winning 70 per cent of the vote in a 70 per cent turn out, triggering motorcades of his Fatah movement taking to the streets of Ramallah amid fusillades of celebratory gunfire. In fact, Abbas won 62 per cent of vote in a turn out of 45 per cent, an abstention of the Islamist Hamas movement was swift to claim as a "victory" for its call to boycott the presidential poll.
Nor was Abbas's stature enhanced by the behaviour of certain of his supporters, who fearing a low turn out and the Hamas claim pressured the Central Election Commission to extend the voting time by two hours and then brought in busloads of people to vote on the basis of their ID cards rather than the official electoral register. The fraud did not affect the outcome. But it did show just how reluctant Fatah is to give up its domination as the PA's ruling party.
Still, coming some 40 percentage points ahead of his nearest challenger (the independent pro-democracy activist Mustafa Barghouti), few would deny the election delivered Abbas a mandate for his leadership and political programme: immediate renewal of negotiations with Israel, further Palestinian reform and an end to the four-year armed intifada. All three present challenges but the most important is the first, says PA cabinet minister, Ghassan Khatib.
"The basic condition for progress is for the United States to invite the two sides immediately to resume negotiations on implementing the roadmap. For the Palestinians this means further reform and a 100 per cent effort to reduce Palestinian violence. For the Israelis it means ending their violence against our people, stopping the expansion of Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land and lifting the sanctions and restrictions that are destroying our economy. Anything less will be insufficient".
But Israel and the US are offering less. While Ariel Sharon is prepared to "coordinate" certain security arrangements for his plan to withdraw from most of Gaza and four settlements in the West Bank, "disengagement" remains a unilateral Israeli decision.
Read More
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/725/fr1.htm
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