Palestinians held their first presidential election in nine years yesterday, choosing a successor to longtime leader Yasser Arafat in a vote many across the world hoped would usher in a moderate leadership and revitalize the Middle East peace process.
Mahmoud Abbas, candidate of Arafat's ruling Fatah movement, was expected to win easily. But he was struggling to capture a clear mandate to push forward with his agenda of resuming peace talks and reforming the corruption-riddled Palestinian Authority. Arafat died on Nov. 11.
Israel said it is ready to meet with Abbas after the election, offering to release Palestinian prisoners if he can halt Palestinian rocket attacks.
Polls opened at 7am, with 1.8 million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem eligible to vote, though an election official said the actual number of eligible voters may be lower due to outdated registration lists. Preliminary results were expected shortly after the polls closed at 7pm.
Voters trickled into stations early yesterday, and activity picked up in many areas by midmorning.
Voting went smoothly in most areas, although international observers complained of confusion at Jerusalem voting stations. Police broke up two small demonstrations by Israeli extremists trying to disrupt voting in the city.
Palestinian police officer Mohammed Juma was one of the first voters at the Jalil school in Gaza City. He turned his pistol in at the entrance before casting his vote for Abbas, who is widely known as Abu Mazen.
"I believe he is the only one capable of taking us to the safe side of this ocean of conflict," he said.
Abbas, accompanied by his family, cast his vote at the Palestinian headquarters building in Ramallah.
"The election is going well and that indicates that the Palestinian people are heading toward democracy." He added that Israeli "obstacles exist, but our people's will is stronger than any obstacle."
According to opinion polls, Abbas holds a clear lead over his leading challenger, democracy activist Mustafa Barghouti. Five other candidates are running.
Analysts cautioned, however, that Abbas would need a strong showing -- perhaps up to two-thirds of the vote -- to be able to effectively deal with both militants and Israel. Recent polls forecast Abbas winning anywhere from 52 percent to 65 percent support.
Abbas has made it clear that his fundamental goal is the same as Arafat's: An end to Israeli occupation and a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with Jerusalem as its capital. He also hopes to reform his government.
He faces a difficult balancing act. He is likely to face resistance from within the corruption-riddled Palestinian Authority and from militants intent on continuing their attacks against Israel.
On the other hand, Abbas is under heavy pressure from Israel to crack down on the militants.
"After the elections, we want to see ... a strategic decision to fight the terror and incitement," Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told Israel Radio.
Abbas has so far resisted calls for a crackdown. Instead, he hopes to persuade militants to halt their attacks on Israel.
Part of that task will involve dealing with the Islamic group Hamas, which boycotted yesterday's election. Others militants are affiliated with Fatah, but operate with great autonomy in local areas.
Zakariye Zubeydi, a senior gunman from a refugee camp in the West Bank town of Jenin, showed up with 15 armed militants from the pro-Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades to vote at a school. "I voted for Abu Mazen," he said.
An Israeli release of Palestinian prisoners -- a top priority for Abbas -- would give him a boost in his dealings with militants.
Israel holds an estimated 7,000 Palestinian prisoners. It released 159 prisoners last month, but Palestinians dismissed the gesture as insufficient.
Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said prisoners would be released after the vote but declined to say how many.
But they said progress would depend on Abbas' ability to stop Palestinian militants firing mortar fire and Qassam rockets from the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army eased travel restrictions and took other measures in Palestinian areas to facilitate yesterday's election. Hundreds of international observers from Europe, Japan and the US were also on hand, including former US President Jimmy Carter and former French premier Michel Rocard.
Only minor problems were reported in Gaza and the West Bank such as an Israeli failure to remove boulders from a road leading to a polling station near Nablus. But in Jerusalem, international observers complained the vote was disorganized, and Palestinians accused Israel of trying to intimidate them.
Only a fraction of the estimated 120,000 eligible Palestinian voters in Jerusalem were permitted to cast ballots in the city.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS