Seven Candidates for the Presidential Elections:

1. Mahmoud ‘Abbas (Abu Mazen), FATEH – (Palestinian National Liberation Movement).
2. Bassam Al Salhi, Palestinian Peoples Party, PPP.
3. Tayseer Khaled, Democratic Front for Liberation of Palestine, DFLP.
4. Mustafa Al Barghouthi, Independent Candidate.
5. Abed Al Karim Shbeir, Independent Candidate.
6. Abed Al Halim Al Ashqar, Independent Islamic Candidate.
7. Al Sayyed Barakeh, Independent Candidate.

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, PPP 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

Tayseer Khaled was born in Qaryout village in Nablus in 1941 and holds a Masters degree in Economy and Political Science from Heidelberg University in Germany. He joined the ranks of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) when it was established in 1969, was elected as a member of its political bureau in 1971 and was in charge of the DFLP organization in Lebanon from 1972 to 1982. He headed the international relations office for the DFLP after 1982 and participated in leading the front's organization in the occupied territories during his stay in Amman between 1982 and 1991.

Mr. Khaled was elected as a member of the PLO Executive Committee in 1991 and headed the National Office to Defend the Land and Resist the Settlements. He was injured while leading a large protest against the construction of Israeli settlements in Aseerah al-Qibliyye in 1998. He was arrested by the Israeli occupation troops at the beginning of 2003 and was released in June 2003.

He has several publications on economics and politics.

Biography of Presidential Candidate Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi

Dr. Barghouthi was born in Jerusalem and holds a PhD in medicine, a post graduate degree in philosophy and a Masters Degree in Administration and building Administrative Systems. In 1979, he was elected as the president of the Medical Relief Committee, which he had established with a number of colleagues. He was shot by the Israeli army in 1996, arrested in 2002 and banned from entering Jerusalem. He is currently the Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, Al Moubadara, which he established in cooperation with Dr. Haidar Abdul Shafi, Ibrahim Daqqaq and the late Dr. Edward Said.

Dr. Barghouthi was one of the leaders in: the campaign against the apartheid wall at The Hague; the International Solidarity Movement with the Palestinian people and the international campaign to impose sanctions on Israel. He resigned from the Madrid Negotiations delegation in protest against the course of the negotiations which led to the Oslo Accords and the continuation of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Dr. Bargouthi was awarded several international prizes, including the prize of the International Health Organization in 2002 and the award of defending the Palestinian Human Rights from the Struggle Against Racial Discrimination Organization.

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 Sayyed Barakeh

Sayyed Hussein Barakeh was born in Bani Suheila village in Khan Yunis in 1956. He graduated from the Arts College of Alexandria University in 1979. He later worked as a teacher in both Algeria and Palestine. He was arrested three times before and after the first Intifada in 1987 and was deported to Lebanon in 1989 on charges of political leadership of the Islamic Jihad. He remained in exile in Lebanon for ten years and during that time established the "Palestine Martyr Institute" which established Al-Quds Hospital in Ein al-Hilwe in Sidon and a maternity hospital in Burj al-Barajneh in Beirut. The institute also provided job opportunities through the institute and its projects. Also in Lebanon he established the "Palestine Scholars Commission" as a framework for scholars in Lebanon and through which he issued a magazine called "The Guiding Torch".

Mr. Barakeh returned to Palestine in 1998 on the occasion of the holding of the Palestinian National Council and participated in the sessions of the Palestinian Central Council which was held in Gaza. He participated in several activities in terms of political and cultural speeches and sermons. He authored two books: "Building the Aspired Self" and "The Right to Disagree in Righteousness". He also authored several publications and editorials in the "Mujahid", a publication issued in Lebanon before his resignation from Islamic Jihad. After his return, he became a Director-General at the Ministry of Youth and Sports until he submitted his resignation to run in the presidential elections.