Palestinians vote in litmus test

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinians have voted in the first municipal elections in the West Bank in nearly three decades, a dress rehearsal for a presidential ballot next month to choose Yasser Arafat's successor.

The elections, which drew a heavy voter turnout, were expected to be a test of strength between the dominant Fatah movement and Islamists sworn to destroying Israel.

"This is democracy and freedom, and God willing we will choose the right people who will serve our needs," said Rahma Hamed, a school principal who voted in the village of Silwad, some 20km north of Jerusalem.

In the West Bank, roughly 1000 candidates were competing for about 300 seats on 26 local councils, mostly in villages, during the first phase of the elections.

A similar poll in the Gaza Strip was delayed because violence prevented registration.

In the West Bank, long lines formed in front of polling stations in pleasant weather for what was also the first Palestinian ballot since Arafat was elected president in 1996.

To keep order at polling places, Israel allowed Palestinian police armed with pistols into some towns and villages that have been off-limits to them under interim peace accords signed in the early 1990s.

"This is the first step towards establishment of a Palestinian state," said Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, casting his vote in Abu Dis, near Jerusalem, where green flags of the Islamic militant Hamas movement were prominent.

"This is the start of the democratic process," he said.

Firas Yaghi, head of the municipal election commission, said the council ballot "prepares the way for the presidential election" scheduled for January 9.

Palestinians will choose a successor to Arafat, whose death in a Paris hospital from an undisclosed illness last month has revived hopes for Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking and triggered a wave of diplomatic initiatives.

Almost certain to win that election is Fatah candidate Mahmoud Abbas, a US-favoured moderate who opposes armed struggle and is expected to try and revive negotiations.

Abbas has welcomed a proposal by British leader Tony Blair to host a meeting in London next year on Palestinian reform.

But Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie said what was really needed was a peace conference.

"It is the Israeli side that requires rehabilitation for peace not us," Qurie told reporters.

Fatah, which wants a state on land captured by Israel in 1967, faces a tough challenge in the municipal ballot from Islamist groups standing in the elections for the first time -- though still boycotting the presidential vote.

A good showing for supporters of Hamas in the municipal poll could make it harder for Abbas when it comes to getting fighters to disarm or accept a ceasefire after the presidential election.

In the latest Gaza bloodshed, two Palestinians -- one of them a Hamas militant -- were killed and five others were wounded in an explosion in a house in Khan Younis refugee camp.

Palestinian witnesses said an Israeli tank shell hit the house. An Israeli army spokeswoman said "there was no Israeli fire" and soldiers in a nearby Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim saw a huge explosion blow the roof off the house.

Israeli forces earlier pulled out of the refugee camp, ending a two-day operation aimed at halting mortar attacks by militants operating in Khan Younis. Results are expected on Saturday.

- REUTERS