Hamas gains grassroots edge

"No longer can one group declare it has the exclusive power in Palestinian society," Ahmed says.

The successes in the municipal elections, analysts say, will likely encourage Hamas to take a further step, participating in May elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council. And the high turnout - 81 percent, according to PA officials - and the absence of major disruptions are seen as positive signs in advance of the January presidential elections.

Hamas is boycotting those elections, saying they emanate from the 1993 Oslo agreements with Israel, which it rejects.

In Obadeiah, there was another surprise in store, even for Hamas itself: Three women were among the seven candidates on its affiliated Reform Bloc list to win seats on the eleven-member local council.

One of them, Huda al-Asa, says that as a town councilor, the competition between Hamas and Fatah for the loyalties of Palestinians will not concern her.

"Hamas and Fatah should work together now. I have run to serve my town, not to deal with politics. My priority would be to serve the women and children in general," says the diminutive and soft-spoken Ms. Asa, wearing a navy blue hijab. "Our platform calls for building a public library and a medical compound."

One of the biggest problems facing Obadeiah - soaring unemployment after Israel stopped allowing workers from the town into its territory - is beyond the capability of the municipality to solve, she admits. Israel says the strictures are necessary to prevent terrorist attacks.

Asa, a nurse who is a mother of five, says it was her experience running a charitable association, the Abadiya Women's Society, along with the two other women candidates, that contributed to her appeal. "I used to volunteer during sieges and closures, helping women deliver babies and helping injured people," she says.

According to a quota system, women are guaranteed two seats on each council. But in Obadeiah, the three women were elected without the quota. "We insisted that we could beat the men face to face," says Asa.

Rabaya, the Fatah campaign manager, offers another explanation for Hamas's success in Obadeiah. He says Hamas was more astute in translating clan loyalties - a major factor in local Palestinian politics - into votes for its candidates. Many Fatah supporters voted for Hamas candidates out of clan solidarity, he says.

But Hassan Youssef, the senior Hamas political figure in the West Bank, says Hamas's experience in running trade unions and professional associations and its reputation as being clean of corruption came to play in the polling. "People have seen us working in the administrative level and trust us with their daily lives," he says.

Bethlehem Governor Zuhair Manasra, a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, says the gains by Hamas in the municipal elections may set the stage for further advances in the legislative elections. "It has a psychological effect on people," he says. "People by nature like to associate themselves with the successful."

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