CAIRO: Palestinians gave their Arab neighbours a lesson in democracy with their free and fair election of Mahmud Abbas last weekend - a poll held in marked contrast to the sham coronations of most of the region's leaders.

In a part of the world where purported electoral landslides nearing 100 per cent of the vote are the rule, Abbas's strong but credible 62.32 per cent of the popular vote stands out like a beacon of fair play.

Iraqi president Saddam Hussein famously won a perfect score in his country's presidential referendum in October 2002, just six months before he was deposed in the US-led invasion.

Leaders in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia and Algeria mustered between 80 and 99 per cent of the vote in their last exercises in the democracy. Moamer Kadhafi, now celebrating his 35th year in power following a coup d'etat, has side stepped national polls altogether, saying that he does not assume the functions of an elected head of state but is rather "the guide of the Libyan revolution".

Abbas, who will succeed the iconic Yasser Arafat, triumphed over six rivals in an internationally recognized election with a 65 per cent turnout rate. His late predecessor was also the victor of a 1996 poll widely judged to be democratic.

"The Palestinians have just given a beautiful lesson in democracy to all the Arabs under conditions that, at least in theory, do not favour democracy - military occupation and a lack of consensus among Palestinian factions," said Amr al-Shubaqi, a researcher at Cairo's Al-Ahram center of strategic studies.

He said there was a "tradition of democratic debates" in Abbas's Palestine Liberation Organization "without which it would explode". But Shubaqi warned that Palestinian democracy could not succeed in the long run without the integration of Islamist factions.

"The Palestinians knew enough to avoid a civil war, despite the Israeli pressure and the force of their differences," he said, but regretted that the Islamist group Hamas had "still not produced the political discourse indispensable to its integration in democratic institutions".

He said that Israeli democracy, by contrast, had succeeded because it had managed to coopt extremists in its institutions. But asked whether the Palestinians could serve as an example to the Arab world, the analyst was pessimistic.

"If you look at the official reactions, you notice that what was highlighted was not the democratic character of the election but the opportunity it offers for the resumption of the peace process with Israel, which is another subject," he said. Arab newspapers, however, took notice of the exemplary vote.

Lebanese daily An-Nahar wrote in a front-page headline on Monday: "A real victory for democracy because Abbas won less than 99 per cent, versus other Arab leaders."

Palestinian daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida took a more cautious line, saying on Tuesday that "without being historic," the weekend poll "differed from the false democratic 'festivals' in our Arab community".

Al-Ayyam, a Ramallah daily, published a caricature showing a tombstone engraved "Here lies 99.9 per cent, buried in Palestine January 9, 2005," referring to the astronomical scores tallied by other Arab leaders. -AFP