Thousands of young Palestinians packed like sardines inside a Hebron ballroom last week chanted Abbas's nickname: "Abu Mazen, we will give our blood and soul for you!"
"We will not turn back! Will not stop until we have our state and our freedom! We will not be quiet!" Abbas shouted back to roars of approval.
How much Abbas would compromise on issues that have proven to be deal breakers with Israel in the past remains to be seen.
Himself a refugee from the ancient city of Safed, Abbas told reporters in an August interview that the Palestinians should be willing to compromise on the issue of refugees. He acknowledged that Israel would never accept the return of all the Palestinians who were displaced by the upheavals that accompanied the Jewish state's creation in 1948.
On the campaign trail, however, he repeatedly called for the return of all refugees to their original homes inside Israel.
That's a message that plays well with refugees like Ahmad Alanate, 66, who cheered Abbas inside an assembly hall at the Fawar refugee camp outside Hebron.
When Abbas completed his short stump speech, Alanate was buoyant. "There's a lot of hope now. We will not forget our lands and our rights."
Abbas spent little time in the campaign preparing Palestinians for painful compromises. For its part, Israel has eased travel restrictions in the West Bank and Gaza to facilitate the elections, the first among Palestinians since 1996 when Arafat became president of the newly created Palestinian Authority.
Some 1.7 million Palestinians are eligible to vote at 2,800 polling stations in the West Bank and Gaza.
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