Rawhi Fattouh Fatah Mahmoud Abbas Fatah Presidential elections were held in the West Bank and Gaza Strip of the Palestinian National Authority on Sunday, 9 January 2005 to elect the President of the Palestinian National Authority, to succeed Yasser Arafat, who had died on 11 November 2004.
On 25 November 2004, Fatah's Revolutionary Council endorsed Mahmoud Abbas as its preferred candidate for the presidential election, scheduled for 9 January 2005, despite his relative lack of popular appeal.
After contradictory announcements, Marwan Barghouti declared his candidacy just before the registration deadline expired but then withdrew from the race on 12 December, after discussions between his representatives and the Fatah leadership [citation needed].
Three other candidates who registered by the end of the registration period subsequently withdrew: they were Marwan Barghouti, Hassan Khreisheh and Abd al-Sattar Qasim.
In an effort to boost low turnout, the CEC made a controversial decision in the final hours of polling day to allow unregistered voters to cast ballots using only their identity cards, which raised fears of multiple voting.
")[7] According to UNRWA, there were 2.6 million Palestinians registered as refugees with the agency eligible to receive services who lived outside Palestine, in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
An unknown additional number sometimes estimated to be up to one million live in the diaspora in Europe, North and South America and in other Arab countries.
The election campaign faced problems due to the widespread blockade of the Palestinian territories by the Israel Defense Forces.
[citation needed] Despite Israel's assurances that it would do what it could to ensure that the election took place, in many instances Israeli forces actively interfered in the campaign.
[citation needed] Among reported incidents was the arrest of Mustafa Barghouti by Israeli forces and his subsequent expulsion from East Jerusalem when he was going to hold an election speech there.
[10] The CEC also said that voters were intimidated by recording the ID card numbers that were listed in the register and registration staff members were detained.
The EU praised the election, with European Commission president José Manuel Durão Barroso describing it as "a very important step towards the creation of a viable and democratic Palestinian state".