RAMALLAH, West Bank — Dr. Mustafa Barghouti is a medical doctor who graduated from Moscow University in 1978 and then specialized in internal medicine and cardiology at Al-Maqassed Hospital in East Jerusalem. In 1979, he co-founded a nongovernmental organization now known as the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS); in 2002, he co-organized a political movement, Mubadara (Palestinian National Initiative), for which he ran as candidate in the 2005 presidential elections that took place two months after the November 2004 death of Yasser Arafat.
Barghouti won 19.8% of the votes when running for president against Mahmoud Abbas in 2005. He said he considered it a victory, vowing to win the next time. But there haven’t been any further national presidential elections — though elections were announced by President Abbas in October 2009 and scheduled for January 2010, then canceled in November 2009 upon a request from the Central Elections Commission.
