January 25, 2006	Wednesday	Zilhaj 24, 1426

KHAN YUNIS: Samira Muhammad’s vote is as much about revenge as anything. Seated on the doorstep of her bullet-riddled home on the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, she gestures at a house on the opposite side of the street flattened by Israeli armour when the tanks still used to crash in to Khan Yunis refugee camp. However, the target of her ire is not the Israelis but the Palestinian government.

“Nobody came to clear that house. Our children are playing in the rubble. They fall and hurt themselves. It’s typical of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority. They don’t do anything. Maybe Hamas will. I’m sick of Fatah. There is so much corruption,” said the mother of seven, who is 35.

Criticism of the Fatah movement, which has governed the Palestinian territories since the last election 10 years ago, has been common on the streets of Gaza for years. But with Palestinians voting tomorrow in the first national election in which there is a genuine contest for power, the attacks no longer go unchallenged. The party colours bunched like flowers on lampposts, the posters of bearded faces plastering almost every public space and the parade of deafening loudspeakers through the streets testify to the hard struggle for votes once taken for granted.

Opinion polls suggest that Fatah, the movement founded by Yasser Arafat, is fighting to stave off Hamas, the armed Islamist group. Fatah still looks likely to come out on top but without an outright majority, and that will probably mean sharing power. The polls say that rampant corruption, nepotism and mismanagement are the main factors in the draining away of support from Fatah.

Hamas has made much of it in television commercials built around the usual scenes of explosions and shooting but now directed against the Palestinian Authority’s shortcomings. One advert opens with the word “corruption”. It swiftly explodes into a ball of fire followed by a similar fate for nepotism, bribery and chaos. Only then come the pictures of Palestinian gunmen fighting Israeli forces in Jerusalem and Nablus, followed by scenes of wounded Palestinian children.

“We want to vote for someone who is poor like us, who feels for us,” said Mrs Muhammad. “For 10 years Fatah haven’t done anything for us. We have to try Hamas. We can’t say if they will be better but we have to try.” There are many on the streets of Khan Yunis who feel that Hamas can only be worse. For a start, a Hamas-run government is less likely to reach a peace agreement with the Israelis.

“What are our real problems? Unemployment and the economy. They cannot be solved without negotiations with the Israelis,” said Fathi Rantisi, a 25-year-old computer engineer and Fatah voter. “Hamas don’t want to deal with the Israelis but we have to whether we like it or not.

They are the people we have to make peace with.” But there is a recognition among Fatah voters that many of the party’s existing leaders are discredited as corrupt or incompetent.

“This is the most important issue in Fatah now, to change the leaders,” said Salam Abdel, a Fatah supporter. “But corruption is everywhere because we are living in very difficult times. If there was peace with the Israelis there wouldn’t be the corruption. Anyway, do you think Hamas won’t be tainted by corruption? We’ll see how they do in parliament.” Salim al-Agha, a 53-year-old engineer, was most concerned about growing insecurity on the streets amid factional and clan violence.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service