RAMALLAH, Dec. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- Rubin Barco, Adviser to Jerusalem Police Commissioner, said on Wednesday that the majority of East Jerusalem residents will cast their votes in polling stations outside the city in the Palestinian presidential election due on Jan. 9.

   Only 5,376 East Jerusalem residents will be allowed to vote in the polling stations set up at the post offices inside the city while the rest 200,000 will have to go to stations outside the city, Barco said.

   He justified this voting arrangement by referring to the Oslo peace accords, which stipulate that Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem shall be allowed to take part in elections.

   Meanwhile, local newspaper al-Quds said on Wednesday that the Israeli police banned any marches, gatherings or posters in public places in East Jerusalem during the election campaigns. 

   The registration of voters in East Jerusalem is very slow and does not cover all areas of the city, said the report, adding that there is not enough time to register all the Palestinians in the city.

   Israel regards East Jerusalem, which it conquered and then annexed in 1967, as an integral part of the "undivided Jewish capital" while the Palestinians deem it as the capital of their future independent state. 

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