Palestinian vote delayed by gunmen, fraud charges

RAMALLAH - President Mahmoud Abbas suspended his Fatah party primaries throughout the Palestinian territories in the face of violence and fraud that have underlined doubts about his grip on power.

With a parliamentary election and face-off at the ballot box with the powerful Hamas militant group less than two months away, Abbas halted his party's primaries in the occupied West Bank, a day after suspending them in Gaza.

The primary elections, Fatah's first, had been seen as a step for Abbas to assert control after Israel's Gaza pullout in September and to get his ruling party ready to face down Hamas' political challenge.

Abbas' failure to hold orderly primaries to pick his party's candidates raised new questions about his chances of carrying out a long-delayed parliamentary election as scheduled on January 25 in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The turmoil has undercut Abbas' drive to rein in lawlessness in Gaza, seen as a testing ground for Palestinian statehood after Israel ended 38 years of military rule.

Israel and the United States are worried Hamas, sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state, will do well in the ballot.

New signs of disarray in Fatah, its public support already eroded by complaints of corruption and misrule, could also boost Hamas, which is contesting a legislative election for the first time after making a strong showing in municipal polls.

The upheaval began in Gaza when gunmen stormed some polling stations, shooting in the air and complaining the vote was unfair. Fatah halted its primaries there as a result.

"Thousands of names of voters and many of the names of candidates were dropped off (registration) lists," said Mohammed Dahlan, a Fatah leader in Gaza.

On Tuesday, Abbas also suspended voting in the West Bank amid what officials said were dozens of irregularities.

Fatah officials said Abbas, trying to bring about more transparency since the death of Yasser Arafat last year, had feared an outbreak of violence in the territory worse than the unrest in Gaza.

"Abbas has instructed the election committee to stop the entire election process in all areas as a result of widespread fraud," Ahmed al-Deek, a senior Fatah official, said.

Abbas said authorities would deal "in a positive way" with the results in areas where voting had gone ahead. "As for the areas in which elections did not take place, we will find a proper solution," he told reporters.

Last week, voters in primaries in some parts of the West Bank cast aside veterans in favour of newcomers and militants. Fatah's younger generation is challenging a dominant old guard, many of whose members are widely seen as tainted by corruption.

In Nablus, 28 candidates complained of ballot stuffing. In Ramallah, a winning candidate accused Palestinian security forces of interfering in the vote and demanded an inquiry.

Abbas has vowed to hold parliamentary polls on time. Further delays would anger Hamas, which has accused Fatah of stalling.

In the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Israeli forces exchanged fire with Palestinian police, wounding a 16-year-old bystander, police said after initially reporting a policeman was hurt.

An Israeli military source said troops on a raid "to arrest terrorists" came under fire. The soldiers fired warning shots in the air and were unaware anyone had been hurt, the source added.

- REUTERS