Editing Mahmoud Abbas (section)

===2005 presidential election===
After Yasser Arafat's death, Abbas was seen, at least by Fatah, as his natural successor. On 25 November 2004, Abbas was endorsed by Fatah's Revolutionary Council as its preferred candidate for the [[2005 Palestinian presidential election|presidential election]], scheduled for 9 January 2005. On 14 December, Abbas called for an end to violence in the [[Second Intifada]] and a return to peaceful resistance. Abbas told the [[Asharq Al-Awsat]] newspaper that "the use of arms has been damaging and should end." However, he refused, or was not able, to disarm Palestinian militants and use force against groups designated as terrorist organisations.{{cn|date=October 2023}}

With Israeli forces arresting and restricting the movement of other candidates, Hamas's boycott of the election, and his campaign being given 94% of the [[Palestinian National Authority|Palestinian]] electoral campaign coverage on TV, Abbas's election was virtually ensured, and on 9 January Abbas was elected with 63% of the vote as President of the Palestinian National Authority.<ref>{{cite web |date=30 January 2005 |title=Final Report on Monitoring the Presidential Palestinian Elections |url=http://www.eicds.org/english/activities/pressreleases/05/monitoringpalestine.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050307083744/http://www.eicds.org/english/activities/pressreleases/05/monitoringpalestine.htm |archive-date=7 March 2005 |access-date=26 January 2020 |website=Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies}}</ref>

In his speech, he addressed a crowd of supporters chanting "a million [[shahid]]s", stating: "I present this victory to the soul of Yasser Arafat and present it to our people, to our martyrs and to [[Palestinian prisoners in Israel|11,000 prisoners]]". He also called for Palestinian groups to end the use of arms against Israelis.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4160171.stm |title=Abbas achieves landslide poll win |date=10 January 2005 |website=[[BBC News]] |access-date=26 January 2020}}</ref>