Rihan

Rihan, Sunday, January 9, 2005, AMObservers: Ana N-S., Chasida S., (reporting)08:10 - 11:15Summary: Election day. Quiet, very little traffic and no extraordinary events.08:10 - 08:30 - East Barta'aConsidering the early morning hour, combined with the cold weather, the volume of voters is high. We were told that is going smoothly, except for one resident who claimed that his family members who reside in Barta'a and who came from Ya'abed, were not allowed in at the checkpoint. That incident and similar cases were revealed to us at a later stage, and we shall report them.In Barta'a there are about 1,500 people who are eligible to vote. We were told that at each voting station there are representatives of all the candidates. Outside the voting station (we did not accept the invitation to go in) hang posters of Abu Mazen and only one poster of another candidate. We saw one poster of Dr. Barghouti posted on the door of one of the stores.Voters have one of their fingers marked with green ink to avoid double voting. The atmosphere is calm. There doesn't seem to be any special excitement in the village.8:45 - 11:00 - Rihan checkpointA freezing welcome, with a double meaning: The weather is cold and the soldiers, in a demonstrative way, do not speak with us. Even A., the representative of the District Coordination Office (DCO), who is known to us from previous visits, is silent. Captain A., who introduced himself as the front commander, was courteous to us and even offered to bring us chairs so that we would not have to stand.In contrast to other times, there was an officer, with the rank of major, from the DCO on site. He turned to us and at his own initiative gave us authorized information about the procedures on election day:1). Israel is "encircled" for the Palestinians until tomorrow, following completion of the counting of the votes.2). Those eligible to vote are granted free passage to the ballot box and free passage upon their return.3).There is no commercial passage or passage to work, except for humanitarian cases.4). Officers from the DCO patrol all checkpoints on election day, supervising the proper proceedings.They weren't too many people at the checkpoint; the few who arrived with the proper permits went through with no problems. Small quantities of merchandise, which were "inspectable," were allowed in.Three brothers, residents of Barta'a who arrived from Ya'abed holding expired permits, were not allowed to enter. They might be relatives of the person who shared with us a similar story in Barta'a. We looked into this matter with the DCO officer on site, who checked the information on the computer. The officer said that despite the fact that their ID cards indicate residence in Barta'a, they actually live in Ya'abed, and they should vote there. (When we called later and spoke with Netta, from the following shift, we heard that they went to Ya'abed to cast their ballots.)It seems that some ID cards and permits are not updated. Residents claim that the DCO is being renovated and new permits cannot be obtained. Major K. said that they should go to the Palestinian DCO in Jenin (every morning there is a coordination meeting with them) and that residents of Barta'a are supposed to receive such services from the head of the municipality in their village.