Palestinians were today going to the polls in the first Palestinian parliamentary election for a decade, with the vote expected to break the ruling Fatah movement's 40-year domination of the Palestinian cause.
Fatah, founded by Yasser Arafat, faces a strong challenge from Hamas, the militant group committed to the destruction of Israel.
Long lines formed outside polling stations across the West Bank and Gaza as voters waited to cast their ballots for the 132 parliamentary seats, which are being contested by 728 candidates.
In all, around 1.3 million people are eligible to vote, and more than 40% of them had done so by the early afternoon, election officials said.
There was a carnival atmosphere in some areas - despite high security - and no reports of major violence, despite fears the poll could be disrupted.
There were, however, scattered examples of unrest. Rightwing Israeli politicians and extremists attempted to force their way into a Palestinian polling station in east Jerusalem, but 75 policemen blocked their way.
Around 13,500 police officers have been deployed at 1,008 polling stations, taking up positions on rooftops and at entrances to enforce a weapons ban. Armed groups yesterday pledged not to carry weapons on election day.
It is the first national Palestinian election in which voters have had a real choice. Fatah was expected to suffer because of anger over years of corruption and poor administration.
Both Fatah and Hamas said they were confident of victory, but opinion polls suggested the race was too close to call. The two parties said they would consider a coalition if no clear victor emerged.
Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, will still lead the Palestinian Authority regardless of the results - but the voting will usher in a new cabinet that could include Hamas members.
Israel has said it would not deal with Hamas until it disarmed, while Hamas said it would only seek service-related cabinet posts.
Mr Abbas today stressed that he was ready to resume peace talks with Israel, even if Hamas joined his government.
‘We are ready to negotiate. We are partners with the Israelis,’ he told Israeli reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. ‘They don't have the right to choose their partner. But if they are seeking a Palestinian partner, this partner exists.’
Even if Hamas does not win outright, it is widely expected to make a strong showing.
Its success has alarmed Israel and the west, although Mr Abbas has argued that bringing it into the system will enable peace moves to go forward.
Hamas has not carried out a suicide attack since a ceasefire was declared a year ago.
However, the group's leading parliamentary candidate, Ismail Haniyeh, today claimed it had no intention of laying down its arms after the elections.
Another prominent Hamas candidate, Mahmoud Zahar, said his group was ‘not going to change a single word’ in its covenant calling for Israel's destruction.
Activists from both Hamas and Fatah were out in force today, handing out lists of candidates' names along with baseball caps and scarves. The Hamas effort appeared more organised than Fatah's.
Outside a polling station at a boys' school in the Beach refugee camp, near Gaza City, Fatah supporters wore the party's black and white chequered scarves, decorated with Palestinian flags.
‘The most important thing now is change,’ Raed Abu Hamam, a 35-year-old construction worker voting for Hamas in the camp, said.
Almost 20,000 local observers and 950 international monitors, led by the former US president Jimmy Carter, were watching the vote.
There had been some allegations of fraud in the 1996 parliament election, and the 2005 presidential election that brought Mr Abbas to power, but international monitors said at the time that the problems were not widespread.
The first exit polls were expected to be released around an hour after the polling stations closed at 7pm (1700 GMT), with official results likely to be issued at any time from late tonight to early tomorrow.
Ehud Olmert, the acting Israeli prime minister, said he hoped Palestinians would not ‘choose again the extremists who have led them from tragedy to tragedy and to sorrowful lives’.