Palestinians vote in elections

A Palestinian woman holds her baby as she casts her vote in the West Bank village of Dura near the town of Hebron yesterday. Palestinians voted in their first general election for a decade, with the Islamist movement Hamas posing an unprecedented challenge to the ruling Fatah party's long grip on power. PHOTO: AFP

Thousands of police with automatic rifles guarded polling stations across the West Bank and Gaza after weeks of armed chaos in Palestinian areas had threatened to delay the election.

Calm prevailed as Palestinians cast ballots, but security officials were taking no chances. "We have been instructed to use force against anyone who tries to disrupt the election process," policeman Ibrahim Mahmoud said in Ramallah.

Israeli officials caution that a win for Hamas, behind suicide bombings and officially committed to destroying Israel, could herald an end to peacemaking. The United States, which brands Hamas a terrorist organisation, is also concerned.

Polls show Hamas, standing on an anti-corruption platform in its first run for parliament, just a few percentage points behind President Mahmoud Abbas's long-dominant Fatah party.

Both groups have said they would consider forming a coalition government if Hamas made a strong enough showing.

In Gaza, Hamas supporters wearing the group's trademark green hats and bandannas deployed outside polling stations. "We are coming to make a change for the better. We want to change the government," said Hamas supporter Baher al-Rayes, 23.

Some 1.4 million people in the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem were eligible to vote for the 132-member Palestinian Legislative Council. Election officials said they expected a high turnout.

Voters were choosing from among 11 party lists across the Palestinian areas and more than 400 candidates running locally in the first parliamentary elections since 1996.

About 900 foreign observers, led by former US President Jimmy Carter, were monitoring the process.

The main militant groups had pledged to prevent trouble.