Hamas heads for important local election wins

The militant Hamas group won municipal elections in the West Bank town of Qalqiliya and appeared headed for victory in two key Gaza Strip towns, poll results showed today, giving the Islamists new momentum ahead of parliamentary elections this summer.

Hamas and the ruling Fatah movement, tainted by corruption allegations, competed in 84 communities on Thursday. Preliminary results released today indicated Fatah won 52 of the races and Hamas won 30.

However, Hamas’ victory in the three largest races – Qalqiliya in the West Bank and Rafah and Beit Lahiya in Gaza – is a significant achievement for the group that has carried out dozens of suicide bombings in Israel. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has been seeking to persuade Hamas to give up violence and join politics, but Israel insists the group must be crushed.

Preliminary results showed Hamas winning all 15 city council seats in Qalqiliya, with all votes counted. In Rafah, with 70% of the votes counted, Hamas had 10 seats compared to five for Fatah. In Beit Lahiya, another Gaza town, Hamas won seven seats with all votes counted, compared to six for Fatah.

In the West Bank town of Salfit, Fatah won all 15 seats.

Final official results are expected on Sunday.

The elections are difficult to interpret, because tribal rivalries and local matters counted at least as much as party affiliations. The most important test comes on July 17, when Palestinians vote for a new parliament after 11 years - and Hamas fields candidates for the first time.

With the late Yasser Arafat and his mythical, charismatic leadership out of the picture, Palestinians are openly criticising the Fatah Party he headed and the government he created for widespread corruption, nepotism and inefficiency - and his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, could pay the price despite efforts to clean up the government and its security forces.

Hamas has set itself up patiently with years of welfare programs for impoverished Palestinians, especially in Gaza, and is poised to take advantage of voter disaffection with Fatah.

“We are very honest and work much more than the others,” said Khaled Saada, a Hamas candidate for Bethlehem town council, citing schools, clinics and orphanages run by his group. “It is confirmed that we are much better at helping people.”

Hamas participation in elections bolsters Abbas’ hopes to co-opt the militants into mainstream Palestinian politics. But a strong Hamas showing in Thursday’s and other votes, especially this summer’s parliamentary ballot, would harm Abbas’ plans for a renewed Mideast peace track.

Hamas is sworn to Israel’s destruction despite agreeing to a temporary ceasefire along with other militant groups in March.

Fatah took a beating in two earlier rounds of local voting, and Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki said party leaders learned their lessons from that. Fatah “did a good job preparing for this election by unifying itself and making a strong team with effective people,” he said.

Turnout was strong, with 70% of voters going to the polls in the West Bank and 80% in Gaza, according to election officials. The only reported incident of violence came from a town in central Gaza, where Hamas backers exchanged fire with police. One person was wounded. Each side blamed the other for the clash.

In Atara, a village near Ramallah in the West Bank, Palestinian security said Fatah gunmen raided election headquarters and stole the ballot boxes. Hamas activists said Fatah feared Hamas had won.

Many voters were prepared to try Hamas after what they saw as a Fatah failure.

“Who will work for our future, for our children?” asked Maalik Salhab, a 24-year-old biology student who was wearing a green Hamas hat in Bethlehem and voted for the group on Thursday.

“If I see the outside world refusing to help us and then call Hamas terrorists, then I have the right to choose Hamas because they are doing all these things for me.”

However, Anton Salman, a leading Fatah candidate mentioned as a possible mayor for Bethlehem, predicted his party will reverse the downward trends.

Since the January elections, he said, “Fatah has built a new partnership with the local community in Bethlehem … Fatah got the message and we are running this election with people who have experience on the ground.”

In Thursday night violence, Palestinians fired two rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot just outside Gaza, hitting a house. No one was hurt. Israeli government spokesman David Baker charged that the Palestinian Authority is freeing suspects and “allowing them to perpetrate additional acts of terror. This has to stop.”

Palestinian security officials promised to investigate.