Confusion Reigns in Sham Election
LGF
The Associated Press says that voter turnout in the Palestinian areas is so heavy that voting has been extended.
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian election officials extended voting in Sunday’s presidential election by two hours, citing heavy turnout and confusion in Jerusalem.
Baha al Bakri, a spokesman for the Palestinian Central Election Commission, said polls would close at 2 p.m. EST, two hours later than originally scheduled. He said the additional time was needed to accommodate the flood of voters as the original noon EST deadline approached.
He also said voters in Jerusalem needed more time to vote. Many voters were turned away at the city’s main polling station because of confusion with registration lists. The glitches hindered many from voting. Former President Carter worked out a deal with the election commission and Israeli officials to allow voters registered in east Jerusalem to vote at any of the six post offices there.
But the Washington Post says Palestinian Voter Turnout Is Unexpectedly Low.
NABLUS, West Bank, Jan. 9 — Palestinian voters turned out at the polls in unexpectedly low numbers in many parts of the West Bank and encountered confusion at East Jerusalem polling stations in today’s elections to name the first successor to long-time leader Yasser Arafat, according to international monitors, Palestinian officials and visits by The Washington Post.
“It’s as if two different elections are going on,” said Leslie Campbell, Middle East director of the U.S.-government-funded National Democratic Institute, one of dozens of international election monitoring groups. “Jerusalem has been a big problem. Everywhere else, preliminary reports are that things are going very well.”
Even though Palestinians encountered few problems at Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank, according to monitors and election officials, turnout in the presidential election ranged from extremely light to moderate in towns and villages.
At the Islamic Secondary School for Boys in this northern West Bank city of Nablus, 190 of 1,395 registered voters — about 14 percent of those eligible— had cast their ballots by midafternoon.
“It’s not what we expected,” said a Palestinian election official at the polling station who declined to be identified by name. “We don’t know why.”
Maybe Wonkette can help us figure this out by posting some exit polls from an anonymous source. |
