Hamas Builds Political Clout With Wins in Gaza Elections

Hamas decisively won a round of local elections in the Gaza Strip, official results indicated Friday, an outcome that could leave the militant group well-positioned to seek greater influence with the moderate new Palestinian government of Mahmoud Abbas.

Thousands of cheering Hamas supporters took to the streets of Gaza to celebrate after the group easily triumphed in seven out of the nine small to medium-size towns in the seaside territory where its candidates had run.

The group did not field a candidate in the 10th locality where voting was held, a village populated by a single Bedouin extended family.

The Israeli government refrained from formal comment on the results, calling the elections an internal Palestinian affair. But a senior official who requested anonymity said Israel did not necessarily regard the outcome as an endorsement of the group’s violent tactics during the last four years of conflict with Israel.

In Washington, a State Department spokesman noted the peaceful conduct of the election but said Hamas’ strong showing did not change the Bush administration’s view of the group.

“We continue to view Hamas as a terrorist organization,” spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Analysts said the outcome, like that in municipal races last month in the West Bank, was probably significantly influenced by factors such as clan ties, narrowly focused local issues and long-simmering anger over corruption by Arafat loyalists.

Hamas, formally known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, also has a strong and well-disciplined organizational base in impoverished Gaza. The group runs an extensive social-services network that includes much-needed clinics and schools. Using its many community contacts, it simply did a better job in getting out the vote, local officials said.

None of Gaza’s major cities or refugee camps, however, was included in this round of voting.

The largest municipality included in the vote was the central Gaza city of Deir al Balah, with a population of about 60,000.

“It has to be seen in perspective,” said Avi Issacharoff, the Arab-affairs reporter for Israel Radio. “It is a respectable victory for Hamas, but a very local one.”

Nonetheless, many believed the vote could be a bellwether for parliamentary elections in July that will probably determine the composition of the Cabinet as well as the makeup of the Palestinian legislature.

And the show of strength comes at an opportune time for the group, which has been negotiating with Abbas over terms of a cease-fire. Hamas’ demands are said to include a greater voice in decision-making, particularly regarding any concessions to Israel.

Although Hamas boycotted the Jan. 9 elections in which Abbas was chosen to succeed Yasser Arafat as Palestinian Authority president, the group has been signaling for some time that it is eager to establish itself as a force in the political arena.

“This is a big victory,” said Mahmoud Zahar, a founding member of Hamas and the group’s main surviving leader in Gaza. Most of the group’s other prominent figures, including spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin, have been slain by Israel over the last 18 months in “targeted killings” with helicopter-fired missiles.

Much in the manner of Hamas’ usual public rallies, supporters marched en masse in half a dozen Gaza towns and cities, waving the group’s green Islamic flags, passing out celebratory sweets and shouting “God is great!” through loudspeakers.

But Zahar, in remarks that seemed emblematic of Hamas’ new aspirations, sounded like an earnest politician anywhere extolling the virtues of democracy.

“Everybody won, those who were elected and those who were not, because the exercise of this process is more important than the winners,” Zahar said at a news conference in Gaza City.

Odd as that assertion might have sounded coming from a leader of a violent armed faction, the turnout -- more than 85%, according to Jamal Shoubaki, the Palestinian minister for local government -- suggested a strong pent-up desire to practice democracy.

Many Palestinians, even those who were supporters of Arafat’s ruling Fatah movement, felt stifled and disenfranchised by the late president’s near-absolute grip on power.

Of the 118 winners of seats on municipal councils, 75 were from Hamas, according to final official tallies. Fearing arrest or other repercussions, those candidates did not openly claim affiliation with the militant group, but instead called themselves the Change and Reform slate. Two other known Hamas members ran as independents and won.

Candidates affiliated with Fatah won 26 seats, and at least 11 posts went to independents thought to be Fatah supporters. The remaining seats were scattered among other independent candidates and a smaller party.

Continuing a trend set in municipal elections in the West Bank, female candidates also ran in substantial numbers. Shoubaki told reporters that women garnered 17% of the seats being contested, and added: “We are proud of this.”

Hamas’ political muscle-flexing adds yet another layer of complexity to how Israel will proceed with its plan to uproot the 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza later this year.

Israel’s defense establishment has until now assumed that Hamas will stage as many attacks as possible in the months leading up to the pullout, so the militants can claim to have driven out the army and thus bolster their support.

Now, in light of Hamas’ obvious desire to build a political base, some Israelis are questioning that bit of conventional wisdom.

Ephraim Sneh, a former deputy defense minister, told Israel Radio that the Gaza voting results showed the need to work with Abbas’ government to coordinate the withdrawal.

Already, the two sides are cooperating in Gaza to a degree that would have been unthinkable a few months ago. The Israeli military announced Friday that it was sharply scaling back its military operations in response to Abbas’ actions in recent days, which included the deployment of Palestinian paramilitary police in Gaza to try to prevent attacks against Israelis.

Special correspondent Fayed abu Shammalah in Gaza City contributed to this report.