A Palestinian man on a horse participates in a Hamas movement rally in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.

Hamas won 77 out of the 118 seats in 10 districts, election officials said. Hamas said it now controls seven out of the 10 towns in the Gaza Strip.

Abbas' Fatah movement won 26 seats, independents took 14 and the radical Popular Front won one seat.

However, it appeared residents mostly voted on local issues and to express their anger over corruption in the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, and that they did not necessarily endorse Hamas' violent ideology.

Mahmoud Abbas

Abbas has been trying to win a cease-fire from militants spearheading a 4-year-old revolt and prevent a power vacuum in Gaza when Israeli troops and settlers withdraw this year under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "disengagement plan."

The local poll was seen as a key test of support for the Islamists, who boycotted the Jan. 9 presidential election, which Abbas won by a landslide on a platform of ending violence in order to allow new statehood talks with Israel.

The Japan Times Weekly: Feb. 5, 2005
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