MIDDLE EAST: The Palestinian leadership announced on Saturday that a presidential poll will be held on January 9th in accordance with the Palestine National Authority's Basic Law, which calls for a president to be replaced by election within 60 days. Michael Jansen reports from Ramallah.
The speaker of the legislature, Mr Ruhi Fattouh, was sworn in as interim president on Friday. Palestinian officials have called upon the US and EU to press Israel to pull its troops back from Palestinian population centres and permit 200,000 Palestinian residents of Jerusalem to vote as they did in the 1996 poll.
The ruling Fatah movement has named as its candidate Mr Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen), the former prime minister, who took over the chairmanship of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) upon the death of the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat.
Although Mr Abbas (69) has little mass appeal, Palestinians generally support him for the immediate post-Arafat era. Mr Daoud Kuttab, an analyst based in Ramallah, told The Irish Times, "There may be some minor figures who stand but they cannot win."
Mr. Abbas is considered a "safe pair of hands" by Palestinians, while the US and Israel regard him as a "moderate" with whom negotiations are possible.
He was the godfather of the 1993 Oslo accord, which failed to effect a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli dispute. If voter turn-out is large and Mr Abbas is given a firm mandate, he would be in a position to negotiate with Israel over the West Bank as well as over its unilateral plan to pull out of Gaza.
The only figure who could defeat Mr Abbas is Mr Marwan Barghouti (46), the former head of Fatah's Tanzim grassroots organisation in the West Bank. But he is serving five life terms in an Israeli prison after being convicted of involvement in the murder of Israelis during the second Intifada.
His supporters argue that Israel could free Mr Barghouti, who favours a negotiated settlement, if Cairo were to release an Israeli Druze, Mr Azzam Azzam, convicted of spying for Israel in Egypt. But this is unlikely.
Some Fatah sources say Mr Barghouti will contest the election; others insist that he does not wish to divide the so far united Palestinian front. Still others argue that Mr Barghouti could play a waiting game and decide whether or not to stand from prison, depending on developments over the next few weeks. He is more likely to become a candidate if Israel obstructs the election or fails to make conciliatory gestures towards the interim leadership.
Although the Palestinian presidential poll may not be a democratic contest, municipal elections set for December 20th and parliamentary elections due to be held during the first quarter of 2005 are expected to be hotly contested.
The schedule for these elections was also announced on Saturday by the Palestinian Prime Minister, Mr Ahmad Korei, in spite of opposition from Israel and the US, which fear that the Islamist Hamas movement would win a substantial number of seats on both local councils and in the Palestinian Legislative Council.
Indeed, Hamas has reportedly indicated that it is prepared to back Mr Abbas because it considers the local and parliamentary polls the means by which it can gain entry to the Palestinian leadership from which it was excluded by Mr Arafat.