Cast the first ballots. PA security officers
Photo: AP
Mahmoud Abbas
Photo: Reuters
Palestinian security forces vote
Security officers voting from Saturday to Monday to free them for duty on Jan. 25, when Palestinian civilians will cast ballots in West Bank, Gaza, east J’lem. Top Hamas member: We urge our brothers in the Palestinian security services to exercise their right to vote in complete freedom... We assure you that if we win, we will be at your service
Palestinian security forces cast the first ballots on Saturday in the Palestinian Legislative Council election, voting early before the main national poll next week, the first contested by the terrorist group Hamas.
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Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction is expected to make the strongest gains in the vote but Hamas, running for seats in the 132-member parliament for the first time, is also expected to garner a strong showing.
Security officers are voting from Saturday to Monday to free them for duty on Jan. 25, when Palestinian civilians will cast ballots in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Arab East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which Palestinians want as capital of a future state.
‘We urge our brothers to vote’
The popularity of Hamas, which is dedicated to destroying the Jewish state, has grown as a result of the five-year-old Palestinian uprising and Israel's Gaza pullout in September, and amid growing accusations of corruption within Abbas' party.
Israel and the United States opposed Hamas' participation in the ballot, the second Palestinian legislative election since 1996, saying Abbas must disarm the group and other terrorist factions as dictated by a U.S.-backed "Road map" peace plan.
Top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah told supporters on Friday, "We urge our brothers in the Palestinian security services to exercise their right to vote in complete freedom... We assure you that if we win, we will be at your service."
