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| The historic Palestinian presidential
election kicked off throughout the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east
Jerusalem on Sunday morning to choose a successor to late leader Yasser
Arafat. (Photo: Xinhua) |
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| Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei
casts his vote at a polling center in Abu Dis of east Jerusalem, Jan. 9,
2005. The historic Palestinian presidential election kicked off throughout
the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem on Sunday to choose a
successor to late leader Yasser Arafat. (Xinhua
Photo) |
RAMALLAH, Jan. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- The historic
Palestinian presidential election kicked off throughout the West Bank, the Gaza
Strip and east Jerusalem on Sunday morning to choose asuccessor to late leader
Yasser Arafat.
Eligible voters began to cast their votes in the
polling stations dotted in the territories at 7:00 a.m. (0500 GMT), and the
voting process will last for 12 hours.
Mahmoud Abbas, front-runner of the seven candidates
running for the chairmanship of the PNA in the election, cast his ballot at
apolling station in the West Bank city of Ramallah Sunday morning.
"We heard that there is a high turnout, especially by
women, and this is a very good thing," Abbas said after casting his ballot at
the Muqata headquarters of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in Ramallah.
"The election is going smoothly, showing that the
Palestinian people are moving toward democracy," he said.
"I'm happy because I practiced my right to vote," he
said,adding the election "is going fine without any obstacle". Abbas
said the Islamic resistance movement Hamas has called upon its members to head
for the polls.
Abbas told reporters that no one has boycotted the
presidential election and everyone will vote in the election aimed at choosinga
successor to the late leader Yasser Arafat who passed away last November.
The undisputed front-runner in the election also said
Hamas has certainly urged its members to cast their ballots as the historic
presidential election is going on across the Palestinian territories.
"All the Palestinian factions have voted, so there is
no one who has boycotted the elections," he added.
Previously, Hamas had announced its decision to
boycott the election and called on its leaders and members not to run in the
election or to vote, slamming the election as "illegitimate and
non-comprehensive."
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei told reporters
after voting in Ramallah that the Palestinian people sent a clear message to the
whole world that they are establishing a democraticstate through the election.
The Palestinian Central Election Committee said on
Sunday that Israel has not facilitated the movement of Palestinians in the West
Bank during the ongoing Palestinian presidential election.
Speaking to reporters, Ammar Duwaik from the committee
said the Israeli side has not honored its promise to facilitate the movement of
Palestinian residents in the West Bank.
He said Israeli checkpoints still exist and the Israeli
army did not withdraw from the West Bank as it had promised. During
the day, Israeli security forces were on high alert.
"Major checkpoints are still in place, there was never any
intention to remove them. It's obvious they must stay in place for security
reasons. Terrorist threats still have to be dealt with,"said an Israeli army
spokesman.
As international election experts fanned out to
monitor the voting process, Israeli soldiers continued to inspect identity cards
and packages of Palestinians waiting in line at checkpoints at entrances to West
Bank cities, witnesses said.
According to Palestinian security sources, a
Palestinian youngman was critically wounded by an Israeli tank shell in the
southern Gaza Strip city of al-Meghraqa on Sunday.
Israeli troops stationed south of the Netsarim
settlement firedat least one tank shell at houses, injuring 17-year-old Nasser
Sa'afeen, said medics at the hospital of Al-Aqsa martyrs in thecentral Gaza
Strip city of Deer al-Balah.
Meanwhile, security sources said Israeli troops
stationed around the refugee camp of Yebna in the southern Gaza Strip city of
Rafah opened intensive fire at nearby houses.
Palestinians in the camp were not able to head to
voting centers due to the intensive fire, said the sources.
Local residents called on international observers to head
to the refugee camp and stop the Israeli practices to ensure that they could
cast their votes.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops opened fire at a school
turned polling station in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis on Sunday when
dozens of Palestinians were casting their ballots there, Palestinian witnesses
said.
There were no reports of casualties, but the
Palestinians said that the attack was in violation of the agreement reached
between Israel and the Palestinians to facilitate holding of the Palestinian
presidential election.
However, Israel has maintained that it has made
efforts to facilitate the passage of Palestinian voters. Military sources said
Israeli troops have halted operations across the West Bank.
On the same day, Hassan Yousef, a senior official of the
radical Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), denied that the
movement's leadership has instructed Hamas supporters to support any of
candidates running in the ongoing presidential election.
Speaking to reporters, Yousef said that reports that
Hamas supporters would give their votes to certain candidates were totally
untrue.
"Hamas' stance on the election remains unchanged,
Hamas still boycotts the election," he said.
Hamas' spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri had said that Hamas
decided to boycott the presidential election because it is an outcome of the
Oslo accords signed in 1993, "but we can not prevent all the Palestinian people
from voting."
Under such circumstances, Palestinian Minister of
Labor Ghassan Khatib said Sunday that a new Palestinian president will face
difficult tasks due to Israeli obstructions.
"The new president will face two tasks. The first is
to rearrange internal affairs and to improve the people's living conditions," he
said.
"The second one is to carry out an initiative on the
basis of the roadmap peace plan and urge the international community to force
Israel to implement the roadmap by ending assassinations and attacks against the
Palestinians," he said.
Recent polls showed Abbas, chief of the Palestine
Liberation Organization Executive Committee and standing for the mainstream
Fatah faction, is the most likely presidential candidate to winthe election.
The official result of the election due to end at
7:00 pm localtime Sunday will be declared on
Monday. Enditem | 
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