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Palestinian militants shut Gaza election offices
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-09 08:58

Palestinian gunmen on Sunday 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.

Palestinians search for their names before voting outside a polling station in the Bureij refugee camp that is situated inside the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian central elections commission began registering all voters whose names were not previously included on the electoral lists, ahead of legislative elections in July.[AFP/File]

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 coordinator 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.

DISORDER IN THE STREETS

The office of Interior Minister Nasser Youssef said it was taking "immediate action" to reopen the CEC bureaus in Gaza. But 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 centers, according to unofficial returns released on Friday. Official results were due on Monday.

Brigades militants accused Hamas of ballot-box stuffing and have staged several protest rallies. Hamas denied the charge.

"These allegations contradict the reports of (election observers) who pronounced the process fair," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. "The democratic process has begun."

The outcome suggested Hamas, sworn to Israel's destruction, would do well in the parliamentary election, possibly heaping pressure on Fatah to share power and scrambling Abbas's peacemaking agenda.

Fatah has been at the forefront of the Palestinian national cause for decades and seeks a state on Israeli-occupied land at peace with the Jewish state.

But it is plagued by perceptions of graft and infighting, a legacy left by late ex-guerrilla leader Yasser Arafat.

Hamas has gained popularity with its role spearheading a revolt against Israel before a recent ceasefire, its piety, tight organization and charitable works filling gaps left by the faltering Fatah-led Palestinian Authority.

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