Palestinian election officials announced Thursday that 10 candidates had qualified to run in Jan. 9 elections to replace Yasser Arafat as head of Palestinian Authority. The qualified candidates included Mahmoud Abbas, the interim Palestinian leader who is considered the front-runner, jailed uprising leader Marwan Barghouti and democracy advocate Mustafa Barghouti. Rami Hamdallah, chairman of the Palestinian election committee, announced the list of candidates. He said the official campaign will start 14 days before the election and will end 24 hours before the vote. Also Thursday, Abbas visited his campaign headquarters in Gaza and promised to follow in Arafat's footsteps to achieve an independent state. "Our people should participate and share in all the institutions and decisions regarding the future," he said. "We must have a strong capable authority to provide security and stability to our people and to bring our people out." Hamdallah said 71 percent of qualified Palestinians, or 1.3 million people, have registered to vote. Palestinians will have their hands stamped after they vote to ensure there is no double voting, he said.
