http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/DCE5FB03-5DC1-4F50-B5B3-BEE7B1BE1D31.htm<snip>
"Thousands of Palestinians began casting their votes to choose a new Palestinian Authority (PA) leader following the death in November of the late PLO leader Yasir Arafat.
Three thousand polling stations, staffed by thousands of PA-appointed civil servants, including teachers, opened at 7am (0500 GMT) on Sunday, but few voters showed up in the early hours, possibly due to cold weather.
According to the PA election committee, close to 1.8 million eligible voters could take part in the election in the West Bank, Israeli-occupied Arab East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
The presidential election is the second since the PA was established under interim peace agreements with Israel. Arafat was elected in 1996."
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"Despite the generally positive atmosphere surrounding the elections, Palestinians seem to have no illusions as to what these polls could mean in terms of liberating them form decades of military occupation by Israel.
"Even if we were to develop the best functioning democracy in the world, we still would not be free. Our main priority is not really democracy but ending the occupation, since no real democracy, or for that matter economic development, can possibly exist in the absence of freedom," said one Palestinian academic."