JERUSALEM - Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority officially announced plans yesterday to hold elections for president and legislative offices in January as part of a broad proposal for civic and security reform that stopped short of President Bush's demand for Arafat's replacement.
One Palestinian minister said that Arafat planned to run again, while others said it was too early to predict who the presidential candidates might be. Arafat's Palestinian critics said they were confident that their long-serving leader would not be stepping aside voluntarily.
Hussam Khader, a Palestinian legislator and one of the most passionate critics of Arafat within his Fatah movement, said that Bush's comments had guaranteed that Arafat would stay in power for years to come.
Paraphrasing Bush, he went on: "When he said, 'I don't want Yasser Arafat, and I want a new leadership,' then he emotionally pushed the Palestinian people to re-elect Yasser Arafat. This is the worst thing he mentioned in his speech. This will give new life to Yasser Arafat and his corrupt people."
In a sign of how difficult Bush's vision of a mature Palestinian democracy may be to achieve, Khader said that he did not plan to run for re-election himself, having given up on the possibility that the legislature could be a meaningful, independent voice. He added that after Bush's speech even he was now reluctant to call for Arafat's replacement.
Arafat "will run, sure he will run," Khader said. "No one will beat him. Yasser Arafat, he's still the symbol."
Palestinian officials warned that they would not be able to conduct elections until Israeli forces withdraw from the West Bank towns they have occupied and take up the positions they held in September 2000, before the latest conflict began. In his speech, Bush suggested that Israel withdraw, but only after violence subsides.
In his speech Monday, Bush called for free elections and, without mentioning Arafat by name, demanded new Palestinian leadership "not compromised by terror."
American officials said that before calling for Arafat's removal, Bush received intelligence showing that the Palestinian leader had helped finance a group, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, that is behind suicide bombings that have killed Israelis as recently as last week. Israeli officials said that they had recently shown such intelligence to the White House.
Aides to Arafat dismissed the accusation as Israeli propaganda.
Arafat was overwhelmingly elected in 1996, in the only previous presidential election in the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority was created by the Oslo accords to provide limited self-government to Palestinians in parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the lands Israel occupied in 1967.
Meeting with reporters yesterday in Jericho, Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said, "President Arafat officially declared today that the election of the president of the Palestinian Authority and the election of the Palestinian Legislative Council will be held in January 2003."
The "100 Days Plan" of reform released yesterday was drawn up by a committee of ministers appointed by Arafat. It was forwarded to Washington and Arab capitals Monday, in anticipation that Bush would call for thorough changes in Palestinian governance.
The plan calls for sharp separation of powers, new consolidation and discipline of the multiple security agencies and school curricula renouncing fanaticism and emphasizing democratic values.
In particular, all tax revenue and other income to the Palestinian Authority would be deposited in one treasury account; official commercial and investment operations are to be run by a single "Palestinian Investment Fund" with strict, independent auditing.
The plan also requests new regulations spelling out the duties of Palestinian governors, who are appointed by Arafat and sometimes clash with local officials.
The governors will now report to the minister of interior - who, under the proposed reforms, would be a powerful official overseeing internal security in the West Bank and Gaza, a senior Palestinian official said.