BEITUNIA, West Bank, 30 September 2005 — Thousands of Palestinians voted yesterday in local elections seen as a test of the political clout of Hamas candidates ahead of a January parliamentary poll.
The third phase of local elections for more than 1,000 council seats in the occupied West Bank was also the first Palestinian ballot since Israel completed its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip on Sept. 12 after 38 years of occupation.
Election monitors said turnout was high in some West Bank villages with Palestinians rushing to voting centers decorated with posters and national flags as soon as they opened. Armed police stood guard.
President Mahmoud Abbas’ dominant Fatah movement faces stiff competition from rival Hamas, whose charity networks, lack of corruption and suicide bombings have won many Palestinian hearts during five years of fighting with Israel.
“Particularly after Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and the run-up to legislative elections, the municipal results will have important political implications,” Jamal Al-Shobaki, head of the Higher Commission for Local Elections, told Reuters.
Shobaki put the turnout of the 127,000 voters at above 70 percent around an hour before polls closed at 7:00pm (1600 GMT). While there was no official extension, organizers said that people who were still queuing would all be allowed their democratic right.
Some 2,478 candidates vied yesterday for 1,018 seats.
Results were due to be published today or Saturday.
Sworn to destroy Israel, Hamas made a strong showing in two earlier phases of municipal voting.
Polls give Hamas about 30 percent support, pointing to big gains when it takes part in Jan. 25 parliamentary elections. Hamas boycotted the only previous legislative vote in 1996 in protest at interim peace accords with Israel.
The prospect of an Islamist legislative sweep has raised eyebrows in Israel and abroad due to Hamas’s refusal to disarm under a US-backed “road map” peace plan.
Samir Hleleh, the Palestinian Cabinet secretary, said there was some concern that Western donor nations may withhold funds to any local councils where Hamas holds sway.
“It will be difficult for Hamas-controlled municipalities to receive international donor money. This would place a heavier burden on the government to provide aid,” Hleleh told Reuters.
Although local concerns are often the deciding factor for Palestinian municipal ballots, yesterday’s vote takes place in the shadow of the most serious violence since Israel finished evacuating troops and settlers from Gaza.
Hamas has been at the center of the bloodshed, which surged after it accused Israel of being behind an explosion that killed 17 people at a Gaza rally, then fired rocket salvoes at Israel.
Israel denied responsibility and Abbas blamed Hamas, saying the blast was caused by its own mishandling of explosives.
