THE DEMOCRATIC ELECTION OF ARAFAT: FREE AND FAIR

Arafat was elected with 88% of the vote in 1996 elections in
the West Bank and Gaza, declared to be free and fair by international
observers, including former U.S. president Jimmy Carter


Details below . . .

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Arafat takes easy victory

ASSOCIATED PRESS

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Winning 88 percent of the vote, Yasser
Arafat emerged Sunday from the first Palestinian election with a
resounding mandate to complete peace with Israel and lead his people to
independence.

Final results of the race for presidency released by the Central Election
Commission late Sunday gave Arafat 88.1 percent of the total vote and his
opponent Samiha Khalil 9.3 percent. Officials said that 2.6 percent of the
ballot slips were invalid.

Arafat loyalists will also control the newly elected 88-member Palestinian
parliament, though he may have to share some power with uprising
activists, outspoken women and other independents who until now were shut
out of decision-making.

At least 50 of the legislators were members of Arafat's Fatah faction,
including 10 who had served in his appointed interim Cabinet, according to
unofficial results released Sunday night. Official results were expected
Monday.

Despite the historic event, the mood in the West Bank and Gaza Strip was
subdued Sunday as Palestinians began to observe the Muslim holy month of
Ramadan with dawn-to-dusk fasting.

Winners postponed celebrations until after the "iftar," the festive meal
that breaks the fast after sundown.

Arafat will convene the legislature for the first time after Ramadan ends,
spokesman Nabil Abu Irdeineh said. That date was not yet set.

Arafat joked Sunday about his landslide victory, suggesting a lower rate
of approval would probably have looked more democratic. "I was looking for
51 percent," Arafat said after meeting with former U.S. President Jimmy
Carter, who led a 40-member election observer team.

The voting was marred by reports of fraud, violations that ranged from
stuffing ballot boxes to voting more than once to illiterate voters having
their ballots filled out for them by Arafat loyalists.

In the West Bank village of Salem, an election official was shot and
killed Saturday night by a Palestinian security agent who became enraged
when told to leave a polling station. The gunman was arrested by
Palestinian police.

In Hebron, also on the West Bank, one candidate said he was told that some
30 ballot boxes had disappeared and that there were discrepancies in
counting.

Carter said Sunday there were some problems in the voting, but not on a
scale that would have altered the outcome.

"I look upon yesterday as one of the historic turning points in the
history of Palestine and the Middle East," said Carter, who brokered the
first Arab-Israeli peace treaty, the 1979 accord with Egypt.

Arafat said the elections took the Palestinians one step closer to
independence. "This is the most important moment for the future of the
Palestinian people, and we hope that very soon, we will have our
independent state," he said.

Crucial decisions await Arafat and his legislature in the coming months.
Negotiations with Israel on the final status of the West Bank, Gaza and
Jerusalem are to begin by May.

Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres congratulated Arafat on his victory
but also reminded him in a phone call of his promise to revoke sections of
the PLO Charter that call for the destruction of Israel.

Under the Israel-PLO agreement, the charter must be annulled within two
months after the first meeting of the Palestinian Council.

Peres announced he would permit the return from exile of all 483 members
of the Palestine National Council, the Palestinians' parliament-in-exile
which has to revoke the charter.

The members of the newly elected Palestinian legislature automatically
become members of the Palestine National Council. In all, a two-thirds
majority is required to revoke the charter.

Peres said the strong voter turnout was an endorsement of peace and sent a
message to the Muslim militant opposition to stop their violence. The
Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups have carried out a series of suicide
attacks over the past two years in hopes of wrecking peace.

Militants had called for an election boycott, but Carl Lidbom, head of a
650-man international observer team, said some 75 percent of the 1 million
Palestinians eligible to vote had done so.

The elections cemented the 65-year-old Arafat's transformation from
guerrilla chief to leader of a state-in-the-making. It was aimed at
creating a new cadre of elected Palestinian leaders with a stake in peace.

The new Palestinian legislators included Hanan Ashrawi, a former Arafat
spokeswoman; chief Palestinian peace negotiator Ahmed Qureia; Saeb Erakat,
who organized the elections; and Emad Falouji, who broke away from Hamas
to run as an independent.

Palestinian analysts said five of the 22 women candidates running were
elected and those who came with Arafat from exile in 1994 also made a
strong showing.

Young street activists who led the uprising against Israel did less well,
said Khalil Shekaki, whose West Bank think tank conducted exit polls.



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This article was published on Monday, January 22, 1996

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