Palestinian election officials resign in protest

1/15/2005 11:50:00 AM GMT

Two senior Palestinian election officials submitted their resignation on Saturday, saying that they were pressured and even threatened by the campaign of the newly elected President Mahmood Abbas and intelligence officials to abruptly change the voting procedures during the presidential election.

Two top members of the commission, Ammar Dwaik and Baha al-Bakri, decided to resign in protest on Saturday, saying that they want to warn the Palestinians that such irregularities could be repeated in the legislative elections in July.

"These pressures and threats lessened the degree of the integrity of the election, even though overall it was free and fair," said Dwaik, the deputy chairman of the commission.

Pressured to extend voting hours

During the election, voting stations were supposed to be open for 12 hours, until 7 p.m. but several centers opened for several additional hours and the turnout was relatively high.

"We were visited by senior officials from Abu Mazen's campaign, and we were pressured to change procedures on election day," al-Bakri said.

Electoral officials said that when the Central Election Commission met on election day, Jan. 9, to consider the changes, shots were fired at the panel's office in the West Bank city of Ramallah. They noted that at least one of the gunmen was a member of Palestinian intelligence.

In the end, they decided to extend voting by two extra hours and to let voters cast their ballots in any polling center, not only in their hometowns.

The amendment made the members of the security forces, most of them support Abbas, vote near their posts, rather than going to their hometowns.

“Threatened and pressured”

Dwaik and al-Bakri insisted that those changes were made under pressure from Abbas' campaign, Fatah and the intelligence service.

"I was personally threatened and pressured," Dwaik said. "I am therefore announcing my resignation publicly, so that everyone knows that in the upcoming legislative election, this could happen again."

Al Bakri said that voting hours could be extended if there are long queues at the voting centers, but added that "This was not the case on election day,"

"These (changes in) procedures had two goals, first to increase the turn-out, and second, to increase the percentage of Fatah voters," al-Bakri said.

Abbas sworn in as PA president

Meanwhile, Mahmoud Abbas who won 62.3 percent of the Palestinian votes, was sworn in as Palestinian Authority President on Saturday.

He said in his inauguration speech that he will seek peace talks with Israel and called for a cease-fire, but didn’t say how he would deal with the Palestinian resistance fighters, the most challenging issue on his agenda.

While Abbas was speaking, Israeli occupation forces killed six Palestinians in two separate attacks in the Gaza Strip.

"We condemn these actions, whether by the Israeli occupation forces or the reactions of some Palestinian factions," he said after he was sworn in.

"This does not help bring about the calm needed to enable a credible, serious peace process. We are seeking a mutual cease-fire to end this vicious cycle."