RAMALLAH, West Bank, Nov 20 (AFP) - Officials pressed Israel to pull back its forces to allow a fair Palestinian leadership election, as preparations got under way Saturday with start of the candidate registration period.
Rawhi Fattuh, Arafat's acting stand-in as Palestinian Authority president, called on Israel to help pave the way for the election by halting attacks, removing checkpoints and withdrawing to positions held before the intifada, or uprising, broke out in 2000.
Nominees have 12 days to declare their intention to stand in the election that will choose a successor to the man who embodied the Palestinian struggle for statehood for nearly half a century.
"Israel should go back to the places it held before September 28, 2000," Fattuh told a Gaza City news conference.
Reiterating his insistence that Israel allow Palestinians living in annexed east Jerusalem to participate in the vote, Fattuh said the election would be scrapped unless the territory was involved.
"There will be no election unless the residents of Jerusalem can take part," he said, urging the "international community, the United States in particular, to use its influence on Israel to allow free elections to be held".
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom has denied that elections were held in east Jerusalem in 1996, saying he wanted "the same" on January 9.
Nearly 250,000 Palestinians are believed to live in the territory, which was allowed to cast postal ballots in the 1996 vote.
Stressing he would not contest the ballot, Fattuh promised "a big presence of international observers" to ensure that everything ran smoothly.
Seen as a political light-weight, the parliament speaker was thrown into the leadership breach for 60 days until elections can be held in accordance with the Palestinian constitution.
By early afternoon, only one prospective contender had collected an application form in the West Bank city of Hebron, an official said.
The central electoral commission refused to divulge any details until the registration period closes on December 1.
So far, only three wildcard contenders have formally declared their intention to stand: former Hamas supremo and junior minister Sheikh Talal Sidr; lawyer Ghassan Barham; and political science lecturer Abdel Sattar Qassem.
Pending the emergence of a hefty political rival, Mahmud Abbas, who has already stepped into Arafat's shoes as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, looks in pole position to win.
He is likely to be named Fatah's candidate after the mainstream party holds crunch talks Thursday.
However, West Bank Fatah leader, Marwan Barghuti, serving five life terms in Israel for murder and also eligible to stand, could scupper Abbas's ambitions.
A poll conducted last month suggested that the charismatic 45-year-old was the second most popular choice for Palestinian Authority leader after Arafat.
Fattuh put the break on calls from faction leaders for a general election to be held by March at the latest.
"Our priority is the presidential election. We will ask the parliamentary legal committee to change the constitution by mid-December and the general election can be held in the middle of next year under the new law.
He did not say how or why he wanted the basic law to be amended.
Although officials have insisted the presidential election is technically viable in the next seven weeks, analysts have said it is likely to be made politically fraught by Israel.
Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat told AFP that he was ready to discuss security and voting arrangements with Israel in order to re-implement the agreement that the two sides came to before the 1996 leadership election.
"We're ready to meet the Israeli side to put in place the mechanism and security preparations... that we agreed upon in 1995."
All candidates must fill in an application form, be aged 35 or over and registered to vote, and pay a deposit of 3,000 dollars (2,300 euros).
Independent candidates have the additional hurdle of having to collect at least 5,000 signatures.
The list of candidates is to made public on December 15. Campaigning will last from December 27 to 7:00 am on January 8.

11/20/2004 16:26 GMT - AFP