At around 5 P.M., the Central Elections Commission allowed Palestinians to vote solely based on their identity cards, without any need to check them against the electoral register or census list. This caused many Palestinians who were not registered to vote to enter polling centers. EI’s Arjan El Fassed witnessed confused voters and chaotic scenes. Adding to the confusion, Palestinian police allowed anyone to enter polling stations. These could have lead to voter fraud, since voters would be able to vote twice without being checked against the population registry. Read more about Election Irregularities: Confusion and chaos after change of election rules 

“It looks like Eid,” someone tells me. Indeed, it is a sunny day in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. In the early morning at some of the polling centers Gazans slowly show up. Members of the Central Election Commission are ready for the day. Boxes are sealed in front of the very few international observers in this part of the Gaza Strip. Local observers, including volunteers from various human rights organizations and party affiliates, are waiting to see what is going to happen. Read more about Election day polls open in Gaza 

Arjan El Fassed talks to Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip on the eve of the election for president of the Palestinian Authority. El Fassed is a co-founder of the Electronic Intifada and a member of UCP’s election mission, accredited as international election observers. Read more about Gaza on the eve of the elections 

Many Palestinians are boasting that they will soon enjoy, again, the most free and democratic elections in the entire Arab World. The only problem is that electing a Palestinian president while still under the boot of the occupier is an oxymoron. Sovereignty and occupation are mutually exclusive. The world, including many well-informed readers, seem to think that the Palestinian people is actually practicing the ultimate form of sovereignty by freely choosing its own president. This is easily extrapolated in the heads of many to mean that Palestinians are in a way free. So what’s all this talk about occupation? Read more about Slave Sovereignty: Palestinian Presidential Elections Under Occupation 

Three days before the general election in Palestine - the first since January 1996 when Yassir Arafat was elected president of the Palestinian National Authority - Abbu Mazen a.k.a. Abbas was to visit Nablus. He had waited until the end of the campaign possibly because his nearest rival, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi is well loved in this, his mother’s native city. But on this day, January 6, 2005, the Israeli soldiers stationed at the Hawarra checkpoint were unusually polite as people passed through without incident or excessive waiting as international television cameras recorded the historic moment. Read more about Mahmoud Abbas campaigns in Nablus 

Presidential elections in occupied Palestine are just 4 days away, and the two leading contenders � Mahmoud Abbas and Mustafa Barghouthi � are worlds apart in what they bring to the Palestinian cause.� Haithem El-Zabri offers a comparative overview of their backgrounds and positions on the issues, and how the international community is responding.� Read more about Palestinian Elections: Charting the Palestinian Future 

In an apparent effort to forestall gains by Hamas in Palestinian elections, the Israeli army has arrested a large number of potential candidates in the southern part of the West Bank. The arrests began shortly after midnight on Saturday in the town of Dura, nearly 50km south of Jerusalem, where the Israeli occupation army arrested an undisclosed number of Islamist leaders. Local sources in the Hebron area said the detainees included Shaikh Nayif Rajub, imam of the town’s Grand Mosque, and Shaikh Fathi Amr, a high-ranking official in Hebron’s Islamic endowments department. Rajub’s twin brother, Yasir, was also arrested. Read more about Israel arrests Palestinian candidates 

“These are the first local elections I have ever participated in,” said Abu Marwan, 72. “I missed the other election in 1976.” He and a friend, Asad Qassem, 74, were sitting outside a grocery store, near the centre of Beit Fourik, a town of some 11,000 inhabitants near Nablus. The two of them were dressed in traditional garb, a lot of it on this cloudy wintry day, and watched the comings and goings at the small but busy intersection. The first phase of the Palestinian municipal elections started this December 23 in 26 municipalities in the West Bank, and Beit Fourik’s townsfolk were out in force. Read more about Voters flock to polling stations for the first phase of Palestine's municipal elections 

The following lists of 2004 most requested EI articles and BY TOPIC reference pages was compiled from electronicIntifada.net webserver statistics recording the period between 1 January and 30 December 2004. This list covers the full range of articles and pages published by EI since 2001, not just those published in 2004. Links open in new windows to allow readers to browse through the list. Compiled by EI’s Nigel Parry and Arjan El Fassed. Read more about 2004 Most Requested Pages on EI