WE BELIEVE IN liCHALVI A Vote For Hope Happened In Ramallah KENNETH STEIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS short time before polling station #36 in Ramallah closed on Saturday, Jan. 20, an illiterate Palestin- ian woman in her 70s arrived. She appeared, as the law al- lowed, with her grandson to read the candidate list for her. In a postage-stamp size, unheated, smoke-filled classroom on the sec- ond floor of the Ramallah Islam- ic school, 15 miles north of Jerusalem, a Palestinian election commission monitor watched to insure that her choices were ap- propriately marked. It was the 21st and last polling station I had visited during the day, which began 13 hours earli- er. There were another 700 in- ternational election monitors spread out over the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip to monitor the activity in the 1696 polling stations set up for the Palestinians to elect a president/chairman and an 88 member self-governing council. Before the day was over, 493 of 578 registered voters at this polling site cast their ballots. The 70 percent turnout was representative of the consider- able interest and participation elsewhere. There were more than 650 candidates for the 88 council seats, according to voter regis- tration in 16 constituencies. In a firm but polite tone, Ale- sandre, a secondary school math teacher trained as the poll sta- tion manager, explained to the woman that on the red presi- dential/chairman ballot an "x" was required for one of the two candidates, while on the white ballot as many as seven choices could be made for the Palestin- ian self- governing council. Simultaneously, three of the other election officials checked the woman's identity and regis- tration cards against three sepa- rate, but identical, computer-generated voter elec- tion lists. Names, birthdates, and ID numbers were meticulously reviewed to be sure no one voted twice. When the elderly woman gave her ballots sealed in red and white envelopes to her grandson for deposit in padlocked boxes, he hesitated and insisted that his grandmother put the envelopes in the boxes herself. As she slid the ballots in the respective con- tainers, her head was lowered. With her vote cast, she let out a Dr. Kenneth Stein is a professor of Middle Eastern History and Political Science at Emory University. perceptible sigh and raised her eyes as a small smile radiated embarrassingly across her face. For the next six hours, the bal- lots were meticulously counted. Protocols reflecting the election results were filled out in tripli- cate. The tabulation at the cen- tral election office was closely observed. A festive but serious atmos- phere prevailed in the polling sta- tions I visited in villages, refugee camps, semi-urban areas, and Christian and Moslem wards. Cordiality prevailed between vot- ers and election officials — be- tween the Palestinian police who kept order and the voters who waited patiently in line. This was true in most of the polling sta- tions in the West Bank. In Jerusalem and in the Gaza Strip, voting was more boister- ous and politically charged. East Jerusalem Arabs were intimi- dated by pre-election rumors that they would lose their identity cards if they voted; there were, by prior mutual PLO-Israeli agreement, only five voting sta- tions set up in East Jerusalem post offices. So the bulk of eligi- ble voters had to cast ballots in distant villages surrounding Jerusalem. Further limiting voter turnout in Jerusalem was the heavy pres- ence of Israeli security officials, stationed to deter the possibility of violence between Arabs and Jewish settlers. And for some in- explicable reason, Israeli officials videotaped Arab voters as they cast their ballots. But the most egregious exam- ples of voter irregularity and in- timidation took place in the Gaza Strip where Yasser Arafat's se- curity forces were omnipresent. In some of the refugee camps, vot- er manipulation was evident and voter intimidation was profound, as Palestinian police officials "helped" voters choose their can- didates. Whether these security officials or poll watchers associ- ated with Mr. Arafat's ruling au- thority acted on orders from superiors, or were merely over- zealous is not clear. No one doubted that Mr. Arafat would win the presiden- tial election in a landslide. No ob- server or political analyst attributed the lower voter turnout in Jerusalem or else- where to a boycott by any of the Palestinian groups who openly opposed the elections held under Israeli supervision. The interna- tional observers who grew up CALLING page 52 To Life. 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