RAMALLAH, Nov 13: Palestinians began preparing on Saturday for an election to choose a successor to Yasser Arafat as sombre prayers were said at the graveside of the leader who spearheaded their fight for an independent homeland.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei said a presidential election would go ahead before Jan 9 as prescribed by Palestinian basic law, and called for a global effort to help jumpstart the Middle East peace process.
In Washington, US President George Bush pledged he would mobilize the international community to work towards the creation of a Palestinian state.
"I am saying to the US administration, to President Bush, to the Israelis and to the world, 'Now is the period in which we should be more serious'," Mr Qorei told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
"Everybody has to reconsider their positions. The Palestinian and Israeli people have the same right of existing in peace. If everybody is determined, we can do it in a very short time," he added.
"We lost a big leader but we have to continue."
Earlier Mr Qorei, newly appointed Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, and the caretaker head of the Palestinian Authority, Rawhi Fattuh, knelt at Yasser Arafat's marble tomb in solemn prayer, a stark contrast to Friday's scenes of mayhem at the Muqataa compound.
Arafat's nephew Nasser al Qidwa, the Palestinian representative to the United Nations, also attended Eid prayers.
Afterwards, ordinary Palestinians trickled past the burial site, reciting verses from the holy Quran and kneeling at the grave of the only leader most of them had ever known, a man who championed their cause for two generations.
Arafat, who died on Thursday at age 75 in a French hospital, was laid to rest on Friday at his West Bank headquarters in a raucous display of grief, as thousands stormed into the Muqataa to catch a last glimpse of their leader.
Security forces fired into the air in order to disperse mourners who mobbed the coffin carrying Arafat's body from Cairo, where Egypt had laid on a funeral with full military honours attended by presidents, kings and dignitaries from across the globe.
The coffin was placed in a grave topped with soil from Arafat's beloved Jerusalem, which he hoped to one day claim as the capital of an independent Palestinian state, a Palestinian flag and Arafat's trademark keffiyeh.
His death has been seen by many as an opportunity to revive the moribund Middle East peace process, and in Washington on Friday, President Bush promised to rally the international community to the cause.
"I believe we've got a great chance to establish a Palestinian state. I would like to see it done in four years. I think it is possible," Mr Bush said after a summit with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Mr Blair insisted that the first priority was to "make sure that the Palestinian elections take place".
Mr Fattuh will serve as caretaker head of the PA for 60 days, at which time elections must be held under Palestinian basic law, or the mini-constitution.
Long-awaited presidential, legislative and municipal elections in the occupied territories had been due to take place early next year, but with Yasser Arafat's death, the date for the presidential vote has been brought forward.
However, the central election committee (CEC) said a precise date had not yet been set and asked for international help to register voters in occupied east Jerusalem, where it said Israel had blocked the process.
"I hope Europe and the United States will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us in order to carry out the presidential elections," Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat said.
"If we can do that, the transition will be smooth and will take the Palestinians towards democracy, pluralism and peace."-AFP
