Strong showing for Hamas in Palestinian election

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Islamic militant group Hamas was poised to strengthen its position in the Palestinian parliamentary election, denting the ruling Fatah movement's near-monopoly on power, first projections showed.

The strength of support for Hamas in the first Palestinian parliamentary election in a decade raised the prospect that it could win government posts for the first time and deal a further blow to hopes for peacemaking with Israel.

Polling officials said Hamas looked set to get over 30 per cent with more than 40 per cent for Fatah.

Fatah said its own figures gave it 46 per cent of the vote to about 32 per cent for Hamas. But Hamas said it doubted the figures were correct and wanted to wait for the count.

Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, has nevertheless largely followed a truce for nearly a year.

It was expected to capitalise on Fatah's image for corruption and mismanagement.

Amid tight security, Palestinians voted at polling stations across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, emerging with index fingers were daubed in blue ink to prevent fraud.

Militants under orders to avoid trouble on election day after weeks of armed chaos left their weapons outside.

Turnout was heavy, with nearly 60 per cent by late afternoon.

Several institutes conducting exit polls have said they will not be published before 9.30pm (8.30am NZT).

Pollsters caution that there is a big margin for error in their calculations, not least because of the complicated Palestinian electoral system under which half the seats are chosen from party lists and the others on a district basis.

Israel has said future peacemaking would be in doubt if Hamas, responsible for many suicide bombings during a five-year-old uprising, took a role in government. Washington, which lists Hamas as a terrorist group, has also voiced concern.

But Abbas, elected a year ago after the death of former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, said the Palestinian Authority was ready to resume long-stalled talks with Israel even if Hamas joined his government.

"We are always prepared (to negotiate)," he told reporters, saying the Israelis had "no right to choose their partners".

Israel and the United States rule out any contacts with Hamas unless it renounces violence, disarms and drops its charter provisions calling for eliminating the Jewish state.

"Hamas is a terrorist organisation. Under current circumstances I don't see any change in that," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan after the first projections emerged.

Even if Hamas does not win outright, it is expected to do well enough to be offered cabinet seats in a power-sharing deal.

Abbas hopes once Hamas enters parliament it might be prepared to relinquish its weapons.

Despite signals this week it might be open to indirect talks with Israel, Hamas reiterated a hard line today, saying it would not change its charter or give up its weapons.

Only a few incidents marred the election, in which 1.4 million people in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem were eligible to vote for a 132-member parliament.

Israeli police stopped small groups of Jewish ultra-nationalists marching towards two Palestinian polling stations in East Jerusalem and made several arrests.

Twelve people were injured when Fatah and Hamas supporters scuffled near Hebron in the West Bank. In southern Gaza, police fired in the air to control an unruly crowd of voters.

A festive mood prevailed at polling places in East Jerusalem, where Israel allowed limited voting under US pressure and on condition Hamas candidates not campaign there. Israeli police said they had detained two Hamas activists.

Israel considers East Jerusalem, captured in the 1967 Middle East war, as part of its "undivided and eternal capital". Palestinians say it must be their future capital.

Voters chose from 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 present.

Israeli troops pulled back from West Bank population centres to avoid accusations of interfering in the polls.

Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in his first policy speech since assuming the powers of Ariel Sharon who suffered a stroke on January 4, said he hoped the Palestinians would elect a government ready to follow a US-sponsored "road map". He is widely favoured to win Israel's March 28 election.

- REUTERS