Palestinian Elections Set; Arafat to Run

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, June 27, 2002

Palestinian Elections Set; Arafat to Run

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will run for re-election in January, a senior aide said Wednesday, despite a call by U.S. President Bush for a new Palestinian leadership.

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Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will run for re-election in January, a senior aide said Wednesday, despite a call by U.S. President Bush for a new Palestinian leadership.

It had been widely expected that Arafat would run, but the statement by Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath was immediately questioned by another senior official.

Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said it was premature to announce candidacies before details were worked out and as long as Israeli troops occupied most of the Palestinian cities in the West Bank.

"This is absurd, absurd-- talking about swimming before you have a pool or water," Abed Rabbo said. "I never heard this from the president."

Hours earlier, the Palestinians announced that presidential and parliamentary elections would be held in mid-January and unveiled plans to overhaul Palestinian financial and security institutions.

The announcements came two days after Bush demanded reforms and called for a new Palestinian leadership that was "not compromised by terror." The changes, Bush said, were necessary before a Palestinian state could be established.

Asked whether Arafat would run again, Shaath said: "Yes, absolutely." He said Arafat had told him directly.

Shaath, speaking by telephone from Egypt, said he expected other candidates to come forward once details of the election process were worked out.

To date, the only challenger to the longtime Palestinian leader to emerge is political scientist Abdel Sattar Qassem, 53, who told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he expects to defeat Arafat.

Qassem does not recognize Israel and backs bombing and shooting attacks against Israeli civilians.

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat, who announced the elections, said the first Palestinian municipal elections would be held in March and that the Palestinian finance, judicial and security branches would undergo drastic improvements.

Raanan Gissin, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said Israel wanted to see concrete evidence of a clampdown on terror attacks before judging the effectiveness of Palestinian reforms. "This is how it will be tested �� with action. In the meantime, all we have is words," Gissin said.

Israeli forces, meanwhile, maintained their grip on West Bank towns, confining at least 700,000 Palestinians to their homes as arrests and searches were being carried out. The army has moved into seven of the eight major West Bank towns and cities since back-to-back suicide bombings killed 26 Israelis last week in Jerusalem.

For the second straight day in Hebron, heavy machine-gun fire pounded a government compound where Palestinian police and gunmen wanted by Israel exchanged fire with troops.

The army brought the fathers of four wanted men inside the compound to talk to their sons over loudspeakers, but they could not be heard over the shelling.

Israeli military officials said that about 200 Palestinians inside the compound have surrendered since the army surrounded it early Tuesday and that soldiers had found 100 explosive devices inside. About 40 Palestinians in Hebron and surrounding villages were arrested.

Over 21 months of fighting, more than 1,700 Palestinians and 500 Israelis have been killed, the Palestinian economy is in shambles, and Arafat's government has largely ceased to function.

On Monday, Bush called on the Palestinians to elect a new leadership, and called for democratic and institutional reforms as conditions for an eventual provisional Palestinian state.

Erekat said Wednesday's announcement came as a result of Palestinian desires and not American pressure. "We have been working on this reform for months," he said.

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister, Saud al-Faisal, was generally supportive of Bush's speech but said it was up to the Palestinian people to choose their leadership and that whoever they elect should be acceptable to the international community.

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