Abbas claims victory in Palestinian election

A Palestinian woman votes, while another observes, at a polling station in central Ramallah.

Photo: Rob Maguire Courtesy electronicintifada.net

The Jan. 9 Palestinian presidential election concluded in a victory for Mahmoud Abbas, who finished with over 60 percent of the vote. It was the first presidential election in nine years, necessitated by the death of Yassir Arafat on Nov. 11.

Palestinian voters cast their votes at 3,000 polling stations throughout the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The Palestinian central elections commission said that 775,146 Palestinians in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip had voted out of a total of 1.1 million registered voters. A further 40,000 people whose names appeared on an old residency roll also voted, and another 30,000 who were neither registered nor on the residency roll were allowed to cast ballots.

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Venezuela speeding up land reform

In Caracas on Jan. 10 at a gathering of peasants from around Venezuela, President Chavez announced a land reform decree that would move ahead the government’s land reform process.

Photo courtesy VTV

The Venezuelan government plans to accelerate its land reform efforts this year, by first carrying out an exhaustive nationwide inventory of rural property, land ownership, land use, and productivity levels.

The plans will include “interventions” of hundreds of farms on state-owned land and private estates, including a British-owned ranch named “El Charcote.”

Agriculture Minister Arnoldo Márquez said “there is no intention to subjugate anyone. The ‘interventions’ will entail a ‘diagnosis’ as part of the inventory, determining the limits of the property and where it is located, who owns it, what condition it is in, the productivity level, and what is produced there.”

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Civil rights groups voice concerns about Gonzales

ALberto Gonzales (L), the attorney general-designate of President bush (R), has rights groups concerned with his committment to due process and the rule of law.

Photo courtesy nyu.edu

Expressing concerns about Attorney General-designate Alberto Gonzales’ commitment to due process and the rule of law, a coalition of some 50 civil rights and labor groups on Jan. 5 called for the Senate Judiciary Committee to conduct a “searching and thorough review” of the nom-inee’s record and positions in confirmation hearings that began Jan. 6.

In a three-page letter to Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, and the ranking Democrat, Patrick Leahy, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) also urged the senators to “determine whether and to what extent MR. Gonzales plans to continue the policies” adopted by outgoing Attorney General John Ashcroft, whose record in office is “troubling,” especially on matters relating to civil rights and liberties.

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