West Bank Votes in First Palestinian Poll Since 2006

Polling stations were poised to closed in the West Bank on Saturday after 12 hours of voting in the first Palestinian election since 2006, with voters casting their ballots in a municipal poll that was boycotted by Hamas.

After nine hours of voting, the Central Elections Commission (CEC) said the turnout was 35 percent in all areas except for the southern Hebron district where more than 40 percent of registered voters had shown up by the late morning.

Just over half a million people are eligible to vote at 330 polling stations in the vote which is being held in 93 of the West Bank's 354 municipalities, updated CEC statistics showed.

The last time the Palestinians went to the polls was during general elections in January 2006 which the Islamist Hamas movement won by a landslide.

The last local elections were in 2005, when Hamas also chalked up a major victory in its Gaza stronghold in what was the first time it had participated in the democratic process.

But this time around Hamas has refused to take part following the collapse of unity talks with the rival Fatah party of president Mahmoud Abbas, which dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.

In the absence of Hamas candidates, the competition pits Fatah against independents and leftist groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).

The vote was only taking place in a limited number of municipalities after candidates in another 179 localities were appointed unopposed; elections in the remaining 82 areas will be held on November 24, the CEC said.

Preliminary results are to be published at 1400 GMT on Sunday with the final results due within 72 hours of the vote, the CEC website said.

For some, the chance to vote was a welcome opportunity.

"I came to vote in the elections, and I picked a good list for my city," grinned 58-year-old Zuhra Badawi, excitedly waving her ink-stained index finger after voting in Ramallah.

In parts of Ramallah, roadworks blocked several streets and the stench of sewage filled the air as residents went out to decide who would be on the next municipal council charged with running the city, an Agence France Presse correspondent said.

"I haven't voted yet because of work but I will definitely go and vote because change is good," said a trader called Khalil. "We don't want people to stick in their old positions any more."

But others were more cynical about the prospect of change through the ballot box.

"I don't expect much from these elections despite what I hoped for because there aren't any qualified candidates," complained 60-year-old Mohammed Zahdeh, from Hebron.

"This is a farce, not an election," said Abu Abdullah, a 56-year-old trader from Nablus.

"We want real elections that represent us, where people are capable of serving their country, and don't just bandy around political slogans."

After voting at a school in El-Bireh near Ramallah, Abbas expressed disappointment that the election was not taking place in Gaza.

"We hope our brothers in Hamas will let the democratic process take place in Gaza, not only for local elections but also for presidential and parliamentary elections," he said.

But Hamas said holding the vote solely in the West Bank served only to cement the yawning divide between the two main political movements in the Palestinian territories.

"These elections reinforce the division and have nothing to do with the national consensus," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP, saying holding elections without Gaza would mean the results would have "no significance or legitimacy."

"These are not elections for the Palestinian people but for Fatah."

U.N. peace envoy Robert Serry said it was "important" that Palestinians had the opportunity to vote in long-overdue local elections "and to participate in decisions that directly affect their daily lives."

He also expressed hope the poll would "re-establish elections as a crucial component of an inclusive democratic process and will serve as a prelude to general elections being organized next year in all of the occupied Palestinian territory in the context of reconciliation" between Hamas and Fatah.

Around 2,000 members of the security forces were deployed for the vote and a similar number of observers monitored the process, 130 of them from overseas, officials said.