Palestinians voted on Wednesday in their first parliamentary election in a decade, with Hamas expected to dent Fatah's near-monopoly on power and further complicate any prospects for peacemaking with Israel.
Opinion polls showed President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party with just a slight edge, raising the possibility of Hamas, an Islamist militant group, joining the cabinet for the first time.
Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, has nevertheless largely followed a truce for nearly a year.
It was expected to capitalize on Fatah's image for corruption and mismanagement which the erstwhile guerrilla faction founded by former President Yasser Arafat has gained since the Palestinian Authority was established in 1994.
Amid tight security, Palestinians queued at polling stations across the West Bank and Gaza Strip where they voted after their 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.
Casting his ballot in Ramallah, Abbas -- who has called the election an important step toward statehood -- said voting was proceeding smoothly. ‘The final decision will be made through the ballot box,’ he said.
Turnout was heavy, with nearly 60 percent by late afternoon. Polls close at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT).
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.
PEACE TALKS
But Abbas, elected a year ago after Arafat's death, 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.
Despite signals this week it might be open to indirect talks with Israel, Hamas reiterated a hard line on Wednesday, saying it would not change its charter or give up its weapons.
Polls show Hamas just a few percentage points behind Abbas's long-dominant Fatah party, which advocates a two-state solution with Israel. Both groups have said they would consider forming a coalition government after the election.
Hamas, standing on an anti-corruption platform in its first run for parliament, has gained popularity among Palestinians not only for its fight against Israel but for its charity work.
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 toward 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.
Hamas waged a carefully planned get-out-the-vote campaign in Gaza, the group's main stronghold.
JERUSALEM VOTING
A festive mood prevailed at polling places in East Jerusalem, where Israel allowed limited voting under U.S. 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 U.S. President Jimmy Carter, were present.
Israeli troops pulled back from West Bank population centers to avoid accusations of interfering in the polls.
But Israel kept its forces on a high alert to prevent attacks by Islamic Jihad, a group boycotting the ballot and which carried out a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv last Thursday.
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. Israel insists there will be no political talks until militants are disarmed.
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 U.S.-sponsored ‘road map.’ He is widely favored to win Israel's March 28 election.
(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Jeffrey Heller, Megan Goldin and Tali Caspi in Jerusalem and Haitham al-Tamimi in Hebron)