Palestinian Elections & Government: Presidential Elections
(January 2005)
Fatah candidate Mahmoud Abbas won the Palestinian Authority election over six challengers for succeeding Yasser Arafat as president of the Palestinian Authority.
From figures released by the Palestinian Central Election Committee, Abbas won over 62% ballots cast throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Abbas' closest challenger, the independent centre-left candidate Mustafa Barghuthi, came in second with 19.8% of the total ballots cast. More than 5% of the voters backed the Islamist and quasi-Islamist candidates, and another roughly 7% cast blank or invalid ballots.
Candidate | Party | Number of Votes | Percentage |
| Mahmoud Abbas | Fatah | 775,146 | 62% |
| Mustafa Barghuthi | Independent | 153,516 | 19.8% |
| Bassam Salhi | Palestine People's Party | 20,844 | 2.9% |
| Taysir Khalid | PFLP | 27,118 | 3.5% |
| Abd al-Halim al-Ashqar | Independent Islamist | 20,774 | 2.68% |
| Sayid Baraka | Independent | 9,809 | 1.27% |
| Abd al-Karim Shbair | Independent | 5,874 | 0.86% |
Sources: Jerusalem Post, (January 10 & 16, 2005); CNN.com, (January 10, 2005); Aljazeera.Net, (January 11 & 15, 2005)
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