EU observers say Palestinian election running smoothly
Despite threats of violence against EU officials from militant Islamists, MEPs on the spot described election day in Palestine as "a great democratic experience".
In the fourth hour of the first parliamentary election in Palestine (25 January), over 35 percent of Palestinians had reportedly placed their votes in the ballots under peaceful circumstances.
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Initial reports suggest that turnout is likely to be around 75 per cent.
Speaking from the West Bank town of Hebron, election observer and leftist MEP Francis Wurtz told the EUobserver that the 30 member delegation from Brussels had circulated freely between ballot offices.
"The Palestinians are proud to show that the election is working. This is a great democratic experience," Mr Wurtz said.
British conservative MEP Edward McMillan Scott described the atmosphere as "enthusiastic" and said that the elections so far were "completely free and fair" and "model elections".
"This is the first step to normalisation," Mr McMillan Scott reported from eastern Jerusalem.
Mr McMillan Scott admitted to have seen a minor incident of an Israeli police stopping private voters from entering eastern Jerusalem, but that it would have to be perceived as "normal in an occupied land".
Concerns about the international community observers' security mounted however when a faction of the al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, last week told newswires that they would burn down polling stations, and would not allow Wednesday's parliamentary elections to take place.
On Wednesday however, the leader of the same group, Alaa Sanakra, arrived at a polling station to vote, peacefully surrendering his weapon.
"I'm voting like everyone else. This is a good day and this is a good feeling that I am living to see the Palestinian people vote," Alaa Sanakra said according to media on the spot.
Wednesday's Palestinian election, with seats in the 132-member Palestinian Legislative Council at stake, are the first in ten years in which Palestinians can democratically elect their leaders, and it is heavily monitored by 950 international observers.
Around 200 monitors from the EU, among them 30 members of the European Parliament, have travelled from Brussels to the Middle-Eastern hot spot.
The calm before the storm?
Opinion polls on Tuesday showed that Fatah, the party which has dominated Palestinian politics for over ten years, was leading by only a narrow margin over the Hamas party.
Hamas, an organisation listed as a terrorist group by the EU, emerged as the strongest party in local elections on the West Bank last winter, taking control of 81 localities inhabited by 1.1 million Palestinians, including important municipalities like Jenin, Nablus and Al-Bireh.
In the meantime, president Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction has split in two, and repeated accusations of corruption within the Palestinian ruling party have made Hamas appear a more feasible alternative to Palestinian civilians.
The prospect of the Hamas movement entering the Palestinian government poses great challenge to the foreign policy of the EU, which in 2003 put Hamas on its common list of terrorist organisations.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has warned that the EU could stop its financial help to the Palestinian territories, which amounted to €280 million in 2005, if Hamas enters government.
Mr Solana indicated that European taxpayers would have a hard time supporting a Palestinian party that does not renounce violence and advocates Israel's destruction.
The Israeli government in Jerusalem as well as Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in Damascus have announced that they are not willing to negotiate with the other party.