ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 22, 1996 TAG: 9601220072
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Note: lede
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.
``I am very proud of this very important historic democratic election in which a very high majority of our people have participated,'' Arafat told reporters after the results were announced. ``We hope that (it) will be one of the most important efforts on the way to an independent Palestinian state.''
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 are members of Arafat's Fatah faction, including 10 who served in his interim Cabinet, according to unofficial results released Sunday night. Official results were expected today.
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, said spokesman Nabil Abu Irdeineh. That date is set by the phases of the moon.
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 and 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 [Saturday] 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, saying the election ``was an approval for the agreement between the Palestinians and ourselves by a very impressive majority of the Palestinian people.''
But during a phone call with Arafat, Peres also reminded him of his promise to revoke sections of the PLO charter that call for the destruction of Israel.
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat answers questions withby CNBformer U.S. President Jimmy Carter after their meeting in Gaza City.
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