The Palestinian leader will look for the
re-election Arafat defied to Bush and his conditions The ANP announced free elections for next January
and an ample plan of political reforms is no a firm candidate to
replace it in the power JERUSALEN. - The president of Autoridad
Nacional Palestine (ANP), Yasser Arafat, defied yesterday openly to
Washington and announced that he will appear like candidate in the
elections who, according to said, will be celebrated in January of the
next year. "Arafat declares officially that the election of the
president of the ANP and the one of the legislative advice will take
place between the 10 and 20 January", said the Palestinian negotiating
head, Saeb Erekat, and added that also an ample plan of reforms will
be made and that will be municipal elections in March. When they asked to him if Arafat will participate in the
elections, the Palestinian minister of Planning, Nabil Shaath,
respondio ': "Yes, definitively", and he added that the veteran
leader said it directly. The announcement took place two days after Bush demanded
the relief of Arafat like necessary condition for the approval on the
part of Washington of a Palestinian State, and at moments at which the
Israeli troops strengthened their positions in the independent sectors
of Cisjordania. The elections, anticipated stop between the 10 and the 20
of January, will be the second presidential ones and legislative in
Palestine history, since the first elections were celebrated in
January of 1996 and in them Arafat prevailed by overwhelming majority. This time, in spite of the call of Bush, it does not seem
either to have a strong candidate that it can do shade to him to
Arafat. At the moment, Abd Satr Al-Kasam, a professor of
Political Sciences of the University of An-Nayah, of Nablus, is the
unique one that has sent its candidacy openly, although would count on
little support. Other successive potentials are the leader of the
Parliament, Amhed Qureia (Abu Wing); the ex- head of security of
Gaza Mohammed Dahlan; the second of Arafat in the OLP, Mahmoud
Abbas (Abu Mazen), and the Secretary General of Al-Fatah, Marwan
Barghouti, among others. Ghasi Hamad, ex- spokesman of Hamas and present publisher
of the Ar-Risala newspaper, consider that nobody would defy the
leadership of Arafat, because "would not be enabled to accept in its
hands the so great responsibility to sign agreements and to make
concessions in something as important as the future and the destiny
Palestinian". "Nobody can more compete with him; he is the leader
of Fatah and of the OLP, although, in my opinion, it has failed in
many fields ", it added Hamad. "Whenever one presses Arafat, its popularity increases
between the Palestinians", declared, on the other hand, the political
analyst Hassan to the Kachef. "I do not believe that a personality anyone, even
supported by Hamas, can to compete seriously with Arafat, who benefits
from the fact of being perceived like that to which the United States
and Israel want to discard", it affirmed, in as much, Abdel Karim Abu
Salá, president of the commission of laws in the Legislative Council.
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