Dr. Mustafa Barghouti is a Palestinian physician, activist, and scholar. Dr. Barghouti ran in the 2005 Palestinian presidential elections as a Palestinian National Initiative (PNI) candidate, on an anti-corruption and pro-democracy platform. He achieved second place behind Mahmoud Abbas, with almost one third of total votes. He also headed the “Independent Palestine” Coalition that ran in legislative elections in January 2006, in which he secured a seat in the Palestinian parliament. Its platform seeks to provide a truly democratic and independent alternative to the large majority of silent and unrepresented Palestinian voters, who favor neither the autocracy and corruption of the previous governments, nor the fundamentalism of Hamas.