RAMALLAH/GAZA, Sept. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Palestinians Saturday startedtheir registration for legislative and presidential elections aswell as local councils, without announcing specified date for theelections.

    Presenting his passport at a polling station in his headquartersin the West Bank city of Ramallah, Arafat was the first to registerat the more than 1,000 voter registration centers which openedthroughout the West Bank and Gaza Saturday.

    Some 1.8 million eligible Palestinian voters to register in theWest Bank and Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.

    While registering as a voter, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafattold reporters that legislative elections in the PalestinianNational Authority (PNA) would take place "immediately" after localelections.

    "As you know, local council elections will start in 30 councilsas soon as possible, to be followed immediately with legislativeand presidential elections," Arafat said.

    Regarding his own candidacy for the presidency, Arafat said itwas not up to him to nominate himself. "I do not decide thenomination myself," he said. "I am a man who follows ourtraditions."

    Arafat's Fatah movement has to nominate its candidates forpresident, the Legislative Council and local councils.The United States and Israel have been urging the Palestinianpeople to elect an alternative leadership to Arafat, whom they donot regard as a peace partner.

    But Palestinian public opinion polls show that Arafat wouldeasily win the ballot.

    At the same time, there is growing dissatisfaction in thePalestinian areas over corruption in the Palestinian leadership."I do not win legitimacy from them.

    I win legitimacy from thesteadfast and enduring Palestinian voter only," Arafat said whenasked about US and Israeli objections to his re-nomination.

    He complained that Israel had placed many obstacles in the wayof Palestinian elections, first planned for Jan. 20, 2003, hoping European and international intervention would help the Palestinianshold free and democratic elections as soon as possible.

    Members of the Palestinian Legislative council (PLC) expressedsatisfaction after the voter registration started Saturday,believing that Arafat showed commitments to hold elections and hiscommitment is translated into deeds.

    The first stage out of four in local council elections isplanned to start on Dec. 9, but legislative and presidentialelections have been initially set - after several delays - for nextspring, it was reported.

    According to Ali Jarbawi, General Secretary of the PalestinianCentral Elections Commission, almost 1.8 million Palestinians areexpected to register at the different voter registration centersduring the coming five weeks.

    He said eight political parties have registered as parties tomonitor the registration and this also allows them to participatein the elections.

    The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has also decided toregister, changing a previous long-standing boycott decision by thesecond largest movement in the Palestinian areas, Jarbawi said.

    He added that he did not expect the voter registration to gosmoothly, in the light of the daily curfews and Israeli militaryincursions in the Palestinian areas, and particularly in EastJerusalem, annexed by Israel in 1967 and which has six voterregistration centers.

    Israel does not allow any PNA activity in East Jerusalem eventhough a previous agreement allowed Palestinians who live there toparticipate in the only Palestinian elections held so far, in 1996.

    The last Palestinian general elections were held in January1996. Within the last few years, many Palestinian voices called forholding elections. Several dates had been set up for the elections,but each deadline passed.

    Many Palestinians including Arafat are arguing that the votingprocess could not take place while Israeli soldiers were occupyingall the West Bank towns, refugee camps and cities.

    About nine Palestinians political parties had announced toparticipate in the elections, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad andthe Democratic Front which had rejected to participate in the last1996 elections.

    Hamas and Jihad as well as the left-wing parties refused toparticipate in the previous elections, saying that since they areagainst Oslo and holding elections is an outcome of Oslo, thereforethey didn't participate.

    The Palestinian mainstream Fatah movement chaired by Arafat hasnot applied yet to participate. However, Fatah leaders announcedthat the mainstream movement would later drop a request toparticipate in the election.

    "All the Palestinian factions and powers are proud of theelections and all would be participating," said Arafat. Enditem