Hamas gains grassroots edge

Huddling near a gas heater in the mayor's office of this small town near Bethlehem, Fatah campaign manager Atef Rabaya is still reeling.

"I'm trying to wake up from this shock," he says. "The Imams in the mosques must have persuaded people to sympathize with the Islamists."

The shock that Mr. Rabaya was dealt was the stunning victory by Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, in his town of Obadeiah, in Thursday's municipal elections.

The elections, the first phase of polling that is to eventually include all West Bank and Gaza Strip municipalities, saw Hamas score victories against the ruling Fatah movement, which nevertheless carried a majority of the councils.

When Hamas candidates assume office shortly, it will be the biggest hold on power for a movement that until now has functioned largely as an opposition - and is perhaps best known for its suicide bombings against Israeli targets.

"This is the first time Hamas will take responsibility in the society," says Hafez Barghouthi, editor of the Palestinian Authority (PA) affiliated al-Hayat al-Jadida newspaper. "It is the first time it will have to go beyond criticism of the PA, to work in the field like a party responsible for coordinating daily life, and as a party with a duty to society."

The elections marked the first local balloting since 1976, when PLO candidates swept most towns to the dismay of Israeli military authorities. From the start of self-rule in 1994 until now, PA appointees ran the municipalities.

Mr. Barghouthi believes the municipal elections should not be interpreted as a vote on whether people favor Hamas's stress on violence or Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman Mahmoud Abbas's stress on diplomacy as the means to end Israeli occupation.

"This is not about the Oslo agreement or the road map, it is about who offers services for the people" he says.

But in the view of Hisham Ahmed, a political scientist at Bir Zeit University, the results of the local elections can be viewed as an expression of dissatisfaction with Mr. Abbas, the Fatah leader favored to win theJan. 9 election that will choose a successor for the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

"While he may be popular in the West, he is not popular among many Palestinians because of his political views, his lack of charisma, and his statements," Mr. Ahmed says. Abbas has called for an end to the armed intifada.

Because the PA released the winners by name and not political party, and because many candidates ran as independents, it was difficult to determine Sunday precisely how many of the 26 local councils that were elected were won by Hamas.

Fatah leaders said they had won sixteen councils, while Hamas leaders claimed to have won twelve.

Ahmed estimates that Hamas won nine councils, with Fatah gaining 13 or 14, and the remainder as yet unclear. He described the results as "absolutely a very strong showing" for Hamas, since, he says, the contested localities had been considered Fatah strongholds.

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