Biography of Presidential Candidate Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen):
Born in 1935 in Safad village, a 1948 refugee to Syria, a Fatah founder member and former PA prime minister. Began activism when based in Syria (where also gained a BA in law); went on to work as director of personnel in Qatar’s civil service, & from there managed to organize Palestinian groups and came into contact with Fatah. Joined 1st central committee, but stayed away from the main Palestinian political arena, residing in Damascus whilst PLO base was Beirut; key role in dealing with Fatah finances. Member of Palestinian National Council since 1968; also gained a PhD from Moscow Oriental College in History (on Zionism). Led negotiations with Matityahu Peled that led to the announcement of "principles of peace" based on a two State solution (declared 1 Jan. 1977). Member of PLO-Executive Committee from April 1981; took over Occupied Territories portfolio after death of Abu Jihad. Served as PLO head of international relations from 1984-2000. Commenced secret talks with Israelis through Dutch intermediaries in 1989; and coordinated overall negotiating strategy during Madrid process. Oversaw negotiations that led to Oslo Accords, signing Declaration of Principles (DOP), on behalf of PLO. Also led negotiations in Cairo that became the Gaza-Jericho agreement and has headed the PLO’s Negotiating Affairs Department from its creation in 1994. His account of the negotiations is Through Secret Channels: The Road to Oslo (1995). Has risen to position of ‘Arafat’s deputy, is Secretary General of the PLO-Executive Committee (from April 1996). Returned to Palestine in July 1995. Has also served as head of the Palestinian Election Committee (1996-2002). Strongly criticized the direction of the armed Intifada at a meeting of Fatah leaders in Gaza in mid November 2002, urging instead the cessation of all military operations. ‘Arafat nominated him as the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority on 7 March 2003, and accepted this appointment on 19 March 2003. Resigned on 6 Sept. 2003 after an intense struggle with Arafat over the composition of his cabinet.

Biography of Presidential Candidate Bassam Salhi:
The Candidate of the Palestinian People's Party in the Presidential Elections
Born in Al-Am’ari Refugee Camp in 1960. His family is originally from the city of Al-Lud (in present-day “Israel” – the 1948-occupied part of Palestine). He was a student-activist in the mid-1970’s, and has been involved with volunteer work committees ever since. He was elected Chairman of the Student Council at Birzeit University from 1979 to 1981, and led the student movement opposed to the Camp David Accords. He served as representative of the student movement within the National Guidance Committee, which brought together the most prominent leadership of the nationalistic movement in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Consequently, he was arrested several times and put under house arrest by the Israeli occupation authorities. He was named to lead the Palestinian People's Party’s underground movement in the Gaza Strip, always working on the move, living in several secret safe-houses throughout the Gaza Strip. He was among the leaders of the first Intifada (uprising), and wrote its first communiqués and press releases in the Gaza Strip. After Israel imposed a complete closure on the Gaza Strip in March 1988, he found his way secretly back to the West Bank, where he joined and worked with the Intifada’s Unified Command until he was arrested in 1990. Enduring the occupation’s torture, he remained steadfast while serving his 3-year prison sentence. He also had a 3-year suspended sentence.
In 1991, while still in prison, he was elected a member of the politburo. He also published his book "The Palestinian Political Leadership" in which he discusses its social and economic development. He also kept contact with newspapers, publishing several articles. After his release from prison, he continued his education, receiving his MA degree in international studies, and he wrote and published several studies, and worked in the field of education.
With the outbreak of the "Tunnel" Intifada in 1996, and later the Al-Aqsa and Independence Intifada in 2000, he joined their command ranks which brought together all national forces and factions under the umbrella of the Palestinian leadership headed by the late President Yasser Arafat.
He was unanimously elected as the Party’s Secretary-General in 2003, and led a campaign to re-energize the Party in order to strengthen its role in the national struggle, in sustaining the popular Intifada. He also participated in the Palestinian national dialogue sessions in Cairo and the West Bank. He is a member of the Palestinian National Council. He holds observer status at the Palestinian Central Council.

Biography of Presidential Candidate Taysir Khaled:
The Candidate of the Democratic Front for Liberation of Palestine, DFLP in the Presidential Elections
Born in Qaryout village - Nablus in 1941. He hold a Master Degree in Economics and Political Science from Haydlberg University in Germany. Joined the Democratic Front for Liberation of Palestine in 1969; elected as politburo member in the DFLP in 1971; assumed several responsibilities in the DFLP in Lebanon and Jordan. In 1991 elected as DFLP representative in the PLO-Executive Committee. He returned back to the homeland in 1996. He heads the national office to defend the land and to resist settlements.

He was injured in one of the marches against settlements in the village of Asira al Qablieh in 1998. He was arrested in late 2002 by Israeli occupation forces, and was released June 2003.

He published several studies in economic and politics.

Biography of Presidential Candidate Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi :
Born 1954; physician, president of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, former leader of the Palestinian People’s Part - PPP, resigned in late 2002. Director of the Health, Development, Information and Policy Institute (HDIP) in Ramallah, stood for election to PLC (Ramallah district), & narrowly missed out, despite a recount. Member of the Steering Committee of the technical committee that prepared the establishment of various Palestinian ministries. The Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative that launched in June 2002.

Biography of Presidential Candidate Abdul Halim Ashqar:
Born in Sayda village in Tulkarem in 1958. A Palestinian academic living in the US and is under home arrest and deprived from returning to the homeland. Al-Ashqar left his town in 1989 to the US to pursue his higher studies. He holds BA degree from Birzeit University and Masters Degree from Greece in Business Administration. He got his PhD Degree in the US in Business Administration and worked in the field of teaching at Washington University. During his staying in the US, the Israeli Embassy refused to renew his travel document "Laissez Passez" under the claim that he spent more than six years without returning once to his town, depriving him of returning. In 1998, the US authorities arrested him for six months under the claim that he refused to testify in front of a US judicial commission on a case of funding Islamic organizations in the US; he went on hunger strike all his time in prison. The next year he was arrested for one month and he also staged a hunger strike. He was later released but was discharged from teaching in the university and was placed under home arrest until trial.

Biography of Presidential Candidate Abdul Karim shubeir:
Abdulkarim Kamel Nayef Shubeir was born in 1959 in Khan Yunis and still lives there. He is married and a father of five boys and six girls.

After finishing high school in Khan Yunis in 1976, Dr. Shubeir received his bachelor certificate in law from "Al-Mansura" University in Egypt in 1983. His master degree in international law was on "the isolation confinement of political prisoners in the Israeli prisons during the first Intifada until 1996", and his PhD. degree in international law was on "the regulation bases for deportation in the international law".

Dr.Shubeir works as a private advocate and he worked in the field of defending the political prisoners in the Israeli prisoners. He trained a large number of interim advocates in Gaza strip in addition to training a large number of advocates to solve conflicts through alternative methods- mediation and arbitration- through the Palestinian association for Legal Sciences in cooperation with "Tamkeen" Institute. Furthermore, Dr. Shubeir worked as a consulter and an advocate for several Palestinian Charity institutes and associations in Gaza strip between 1994-2004.

Dr. Shubeir worked as a lecturer in Gaza Program for psychological health, the Palestinian Association for Legal Sciences in Gaza and to Palestine Advocates Federation in Gaza strip, Khan Yunis branch.

Dr. Shubeir is a member in the following official commissions:
1) The Federation of Palestine Advocates since 1983.
2) The Federation Union of the Arab Advocates.
3) A member and a secretary of the Palestinian Association for the Palestinian Legal Sciences in Gaza strip.
4) The Egyptian Association for International Law in the Arab Egyptian Republic.
5) The Federation of Egyptian Advocates since 2002.

Biography of Presidential Candidate Sheikh Sayed Barakeh:
Born in Bani Suheila in Gaza Strip in 1956. He is one of the previous leaders of Hamas Islamic Jihad.