Gunmen close vote registration offices

PALESTINIAN gunmen yesterday shut down central Gaza offices registering voters for a parliamentary election due in July, saying they were protesting at losses by the ruling Fatah Party in last week’s municipal ballot.

The action underlined challenges facing President Mahmoud Abbas in his drive to rein in militants and pursue democratic reform, seen by Middle East mediators as essential to launching a peace process between the Palestinians and Israel.

Witnesses said 20 masked militants belonging to Abbas's Fatah movement burst into Central Elections Committee (CEC) premises in central Gaza and closed them "until further notice", ejecting their employees. No violence was reported.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades gunmen said they were furious over what they called fraudulent local election results showing victories by the rival Islamist Hamas faction over Fatah in two large Gaza municipalities, Rafah and Bureij.

Foreign observers said the vote was generally free and fair.

Senior Fatah officials condemned the militants' move, which disrupted electoral registration in central Gaza, where there are some 86,000 eligible voters.

"We tried to explain to (the gunmen) that we had nothing to do with the local elections, that we were responsible only for preparing the parliamentary election, but they wouldn't hear of it," said regional CEC co-ordinator Jamil al-Khaldi.

"We cannot accept such assaults on Palestinian institutions. We are trying to resolve the problem so our offices can reopen tomorrow," elections committee director Amar Dweik said.

The office of Interior Minister Nasser Youssef said it was taking "immediate action" to reopen the CEC bureaus in Gaza. However, there was no sign of action on the ground by security forces.

They have been weakened by corruption and factionalism many militants have shadowy links with security services and operate beyond the control of Fatah political leaders and have been resistant to Abbas's law-and-order campaign.

Fatah won control last week of 52 of the 84 municipal councils contested in Gaza and the West Bank, but Hamas emerged victorious in the largest urban centres, according to unofficial returns released on Friday. Official results were due today.