Such an assessment requires acknowledging that the election was far from flawless: Hamas and Islamic Jihad boycotted the poll, and Marwan Barghouti, a fellow Fatah member with Abbas and the one candidate who could seriously have challenged him, was ungently persuaded by the movement's leadership to withdraw his candidacy in order to present a unified front.
要做出正确的确定，就必须承认此次选举绝非完美无瑕：哈马斯和伊斯兰圣战组织联合抵制选举；而为了保证对外联合阵线，法塔赫领导层紧急劝说与阿巴斯同为法塔赫成员的马尔万·巴尔古提，也是能对阿巴斯构成严重威胁的候选人，使其放弃参选。