Uncertainty clouds campaign

Campaigning began yesterday for a Palestinian legislative election clouded by speculation that President Mahmoud Abbas, mired in conflict with Israel and facing a challenge from rival Islamists, could delay voting.

President Abbas's ruling Fatah faction kicked off its campaign at Yasser Arafat's grave, rival Hamas vowed to root out corruption and an independent candidate squared off in Arab East Jerusalem with Israeli police under orders to ban electioneering in the city at the heart of the Middle East conflict.

The January 25 vote is widely seen as a referendum on President Abbas's rule following Israel's Gaza pull-out last year, which raised hopes of ending fighting and of founding a Palestinian state.

But surging chaos in Gaza, and diplomatic deadlock over Israel's designs on the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, have sapped support for Fatah, which has been dogged by allegations of corruption and mismanagement.

With Fatah divided between veteran members and a young guard vying for influence and support high for Hamas, a militant group dedicated to Israel's destruction, President Abbas has come under pressure within his faction to delay the election.

President Abbas raised the possibility on Monday, citing expectations Israel would bar voting in East Jerusalem, which it annexed in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as capital of a state they hope to build in the West Bank and Gaza.

Surrounded by news photographers, independent candidate Hanan Ashrawi stood on an East Jerusalem street holding a banner bearing the name of her "Third Way" party.

Israeli police officers pulled the banner from her hand, enforcing a ban on Palestinian campaigning in the city. Police did not arrest Dr Ashrawi but detained an aide and another independent candidate for questioning.

Commenting on the Israeli action, Veronique de Keyser, head of a European Union observer mission, said: "I am slightly shocked and it is not a very encouraging sign."

Israeli government officials, who have voiced concern Israel could be blamed internationally for hindering Palestinian democracy if the election were delayed, said no final decision had been made on whether to permit voting in East Jerusalem.

Israel allowed voting in Jerusalem in the last Palestinian parliamentary election in 1996, which Hamas boycotted.

In Gaza, where streets were festooned with campaign posters and Islamic flags, clothing store owner Mohammed Zaki gave voice to public doubts the election would go ahead.

"Everybody is afraid of Hamas winning - Israel, America and many Palestinians too," he said.

Despite Fatah's troubles, President Abbas has a big personal stake in ensuring that elections happen on time.

His message to Western backers has been that they will strengthen democracy, and also help tame Hamas by bringing it into the political mainstream. Western favour is vital for President Abbas in his push to end five years of fighting and win statehood.

"There is a Palestinian crisis, and elections are a first step towards resolution," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in Gaza. "Now we can say that our people are on the threshold of a new era, an era of real change and reform."

Hamas is widely seen as less corrupt than Fatah and many Palestinians have welcomed its charity network as much as its suicide bombings.

At Mr Arafat's grave in the West Bank city of Ramallah, senior Palestinian official Nabil Shaath formally launched Fatah's campaign and called for honest elections to show the world "we are capable of building our state and institutions".