Palestinian Central Election Commission unable to respond to Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi’s formal complaint of last-minute illegal changes in Palestinian presidential election regulations. On January 15 2005, forty-six Palestinian Election Commission staff members resigned in protest of pressures placed on the Commission to abruptly change voting procedures during the January 9th 2005 presidential poll. Such pressures were allegedly exerted upon the Commission by Mahmoud Abbas’s campaign and intelligence officials, forcing the Commission to change the regulations under duress. These changes led to a decrease in the percentage of votes for Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi and an increase for Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazin). Read more about Election Irregularities: CEC unable to respond to Barghouthi campaign formal complaint 

The 9 January election for the president of the Palestinian Authority represented a genuine effort to conduct a regular electoral process. Despite the difficult and tense conditions, Palestinian electoral authorities made adequate and sufficient arrangements for voters and the strong turn out showed that the public was enthusiastic to exercise its democratic rights. However, the occupation and continuing violence as well as restrictions on freedom of movement meant that a truly free election was always going to be difficult to achieve. Read more about Preliminary Statement on Palestinian Elections 

On Sunday, 9 January 2005, the Palestinian electorate went to polling centers to vote in the first presidential election under the Palestinian National Authority since 1996.  Despite the negative environment created by the continuous Israeli belligerent occupation and attacks launched by Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian civilians, which impacted on the electoral process over the past weeks, Palestinians insisted on participating in the election; demonstrating a spirit of determination to exercise their electoral right, despite the existence of occupation.  Read more about Preliminary Evaluation of Monitoring over the Palestinian Presidential Election 

On Monday at noon, 10 January 2005, the Palestinian Election Appeals Court (EAC) rejected an appeal submitted by PCHR late on Sunday night, the 9th of January 2005, to issue a final injunction cancelling a decision taken by the Central Election Commission (CEC) to allow electors to vote using identity cards instead of relying on the electoral register.   A few hours before closing the polling, the CEC circulated instructions to officials of polling centers to allow citizens whose names are not registered in the electoral register to vote depending on checking their identity cards only and not relying on the electoral register.  Read more about Election Irregularities: Election Appeals Court rejects an appeal submitted by PCHR against allowing identity cards 

The 2005 Palestinian presidential election was held in an orderly fashion, thanks in great part to the cooperation received from Palestinian citizens. However, with respect to the electoral process to this point, the CEC makes the following two qualifications: 1. Israeli forces which continue to occupy Palestine imposed huge obstacles to the participation of Jerusalemite citizens in the elections. 2. On Election Day, the CEC received thousands of telephone calls from individuals whose names appear on the civil register, but who were unable to locate their polling centers. It became clear that this problem had the potential to deprive many voters of their voting rights. Read more about CEC: Statement on the 2005 Presidential Election (includes official results) 

Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, Palestinian presidential candidate, held a press conference at 7:30 pm on the evening of January 9, 2005, the day of the Palestinian presidential elections. At around 5:00 pm, Dr. Barghouthi and his campaigners found out via the media and word of mouth that the election rules and procedures had been changed. Neither he nor his campaign were officially informed. The changes were: 1. The voting process was prolonged for two additional hours. 2. The rules and procedures were changed such that people who were not registered in the elections registry were suddenly allowed to vote, which opened up the possibility of double or multiple voting. Read more about Election Irregularities: Mustafa Barghouthi campaign alleges "serious" election violations