February 2001 World Headlines

Wednesday, February 7, 2001 - Web posted at 9:40:58 AM GMT

Hawkish Sharon set for power

JERUSALEM - Against a backdrop of renewed violence, Israel was set yesterday to sweep hawkish Ariel Sharon to a crushing victory in an election seen as a referendum on peace but a brave-faced Ehud Barak insisted the race was not yet lost.

In a sign of deep disenchantment with both candidates, the turnout rate was down sharply from the May 1999 election that brought Barak to power in a landslide, and election officials said it could prove to be a record low."

"People who were angry at me are now realising what is the real alternative, and they are coming back in tens of thousands every hour," the 58-year-old Barak said.

However, at 3 pm (1300 GMT), the turnout rate was a sluggish 34.2 percent, compared with 41.7 percent at the same time in May 1999, according to Israel's central electoral commission."

"If the trend is confirmed, the turnout rate in this election will be the lowest registered since the creation of the Jewish state (in 1948)," said election commission chief statistician Avraham Diskin.

Former army chief Barak, his government crippled by the four-month Palestinian intifada, or uprising, said as he cast his ballot that the election presented voters with a choice between peace and war."

"This is a real choice between extremism and no limits and borders that characterize the group around Mr.

Sharon and Mr.

Sharon himself and our positions," he said, voicing optimism about his chances.

Sharon, while seeking to dispel an image as a warmonger, also issued his own appeal to voters to cast their ballots and reaffirmed a campaign pledge to keep Jerusalem forever under Israeli sovereignty."

"People must come and vote.

It is an election that will determine the future of the state and the unity of Jerusalem," he said.

Polling stations remain open until 10:00 pm (2000 GMT) on what has been declared a public holiday, with initial television projections from exit polls due right after they close.

Meanwhile, Palestinian threats of a "day of rage" proved true as Israeli soldiers and Palestinians clashed in the West Bank, leaving 23 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers injured, according to Palestinian hospital sources and the Israeli army.

Chanting "the intifada will continue" and "Sharon the Butcher," up to 2,000 protestors took to the streets in Ramallah following a call by a coalition of Palestinian groups for mass demonstrations to mark the election."

"Sharon is the last bullet the Israelis havei let them fire it," said Marwan Barghouthi, the head of the West Bank branch of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction and a key organiser of the uprising.

Israel stationed 15,000 police throughout the country to ensure calm and sealed off the Palestinian territories amid warnings of possible terror attacks.

Israeli police said some 140 incidents were reported during voting, injuring three people, including a Barak bodyguard.

Sharon, blamed by Palestinians for triggering the latest uprising with a controversial visit to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, a site holy to both Jews and Muslims, has maintained a hard line towards the Palestinians, saying he will only negotiate when there is an end to the violence.

Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo warned a Sharon government would "suppress the Palestinian people and turn their back on the peace process."

""There is no danger like the danger of Sharon, and all eyes have to be wide open to thisi the peace front must be enlarged to confront this," he told Voice of Palestine radio.

In a dramatic comeback for a man written off over the Lebanon war 18 years ago, opinion polls show Sharon, the 72-year-old former general nicknamed the "Bulldozer," winning by a landslide.

A Jerusalem Post survey gave the Likud party leader a thundering 27-point lead over Barak, who forced the election with his December resignation to seek a new mandate for peace but has trailed badly from the start of the campaign.

It is the third election in just five years for Israelis but the first time in their history they have gone to the polls to choose a prime minister without a parallel parliamentary election.

And some commentators have warned that political mayhem could ensue, triggering general elections ahead of their due date in May 2003.

The election is widely regarded as a protest vote against the Labour leader because of the collapse of peace talks with the Palestinians and the explosion of violence in late September, rather than any ringing endorsement of Sharon.

- Nampa-Sapa-AFP

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