WEST BANK/GAZA/JERUSALEM: PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN TO CHOOSE A NEW PALESTINIAN LEADER

Record ID: 347630

  • Title: WEST BANK/GAZA/JERUSALEM: PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN TO CHOOSE A NEW PALESTINIAN LEADER
  • Date: 3rd January 2004
  • Summary: (EU)RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (RECENT - JANUARY 1, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV OF CAMPAIGN POSTERS COVERING THE WALLS OF THE CITY CENTRE (2 SHOTS) 0.16 2. LV LARGE POSTER OF MAHMOUD ABBAS IN CITY CENTRE 0.22 3. SLV LARGE POSTER OF MUSTAFA BARGHOUTHI IN CITY CENTRE 0.32 (EU)GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP (RECENT - DECEMBER 31, 2004) (REUTER
  • Embargoed: 18th January 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HEBRON, JENIN AND RAMALLAH, WEST BANK / GAZA CITY, RAFAH, GAZA STRIP / JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVAOX117S0L99V32CPT82ZXMOBM
  • Story Text: A look at the presidential race, less than one week
    before Palestinians choose a new leader.




    Campaigning has reached fever pitch across the West
    Bank and Gaza with less than one week to go before a new
    Palestinian leader is chosen.

    Borne aloft by cheering gunmen presidential-hopeful
    Mahmoud Abbas cut an unusual figure in his grey business
    suit during recent campaign rallies in the Gaza Strip.

    Smiling and raising his hand in salute, Abbas gave a
    demonstration of the careful diplomacy he has adopted to
    woo the fighters as he bids to succeed Yasser Arafat in the
    January 9 elections -- a victory that looks in little doubt.

    Abbas is the frontrunner to succeed Arafat and is
    expected to win 65 percent in next week's presidential
    election, a poll showed on Sunday (January 2).

    His closest rival currently enjoys little more than 20
    percent of the public's support, with the other 5
    candidates sharing 5 percent support among them.

    Abbas, the candidate of Arafat's dominant Fatah
    movement and head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation,
    is seen as a relative moderate who opposes armed struggle
    and wants to revive talks with Israel for a Palestinian
    state.

    Militants appear less than convinced by Abbas's call to
    end armed struggle and emphasise there could be no truce
    while Israel continues to fight them. Israel, however, has
    ruled out negotiations if attacks continue.

    Abbas, though determined to ensure the rule of law
    prevailed in the Palestinian territories, said he would
    achieve that goal through "dialogue and discussion" as he
    pursued national unity.

    "Palestinians taking up arms against each other will
    not happen," Abbas pledged.

    Some gunmen privately admit exhaustion after years on
    the run and also worry about their fate after the death of
    Arafat, who was seen by Fatah militants as their ultimate
    leader, though he denied Israeli and U.S. accusations of
    fomenting violence.

    Trying to win over the gunmen, Abbas has pledged to
    ensure the safety of "the fugitives" and also insisted that
    he will stick to Arafat's basic demands for a state on all
    the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

    Abbas's nearest rival is independent candidate Mustafa
    Barghouthi, who currently enjoys 22 percent of the public's
    vote.

    Barghouthi has been an active campaigner against
    Israel's controversial separation barrier which divides
    Israel from the West Bank and has also campaigned against
    Israeli curfews and closures.

    His campaigning has led to numerous scuffles with
    Israeli soldiers at checkpoints and has led to his detention on a
    numbe
    r of occasions.

    Barghouthi was arrested as he campaigned in disputed
    Jerusalem in December and was taken into custody while
    meeting Palestinians in Jerusalem's walled Old City.

    Police said Barghouthi, one of seven Palestinians
    running in the presidential race in the West Bank and Gaza
    Strip, was detained for violating his Israeli-issued entry
    permit.

    It was the third such incident.

    Earlier in December, Barghouthi said Israeli troops
    beat and briefly detained him at a checkpoint outside the
    West Bank city of Jenin. The army said Barghouthi and his
    entourage had refused to submit to a routine car search.

    Barghouthi is a distant cousin of jailed Palestinian
    uprising leader Marwan Barghouthi, who pulled out of the
    presidential race in late December.

    Marwan Barghouthi was the only candidate seen to pose a
    real threat to Abbas's chances of winning.








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