GAZA CITY, Jan 24: The main armed factions pledged on Tuesday to ensure the second Palestinian general election passes off peacefully as security forces prepared to take up positions around polling stations for Wednesday’s vote.

The Palestinian Authority leadership, aware that a chaotic election will damage the case for statehood, has repeatedly appealed for all parties to respect the democratic process and the result is likely to have a profound impact on the future of the Middle East peace process.

But while foreign observers have been generally encouraged by the relative lack of violence in the lead-up to the poll, the overnight killing of a campaign staffer for the ruling Fatah faction in the West Bank city of Nablus underlined the potential for serious problems on voting day.

A spate of attacks on government buildings and the offices of the central elections commission in southern Gaza earlier this month had raised fears that the whole process could be clouded in violence.

The main armed factions, including the military wing of the Hamas and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, loyal to Fatah, issued a joint statement which called for all Palestinians to take part in the vote.

“We call upon all our people, regardless of their preferences and political affiliations, to participate widely in this democratic festival,” it said.

“We assert that we will not allow any element to confiscate your right to vote and elect your representatives.”

Abu Adham, a leader of Al Aqsa, said the groups would support the police effort to guard polling stations but emphasised they would not carry weapons.

The groups ‘will intervene if certain people violate the ban on carrying Weapons’, he added.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has issued orders for security forces to confront anyone who tries to disrupt the vote with an ‘iron fist’.

Former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt, who oversaw last January’s successful presidential election, predicted that voting would be peaceful.

“I would expect that these elections will be even better than the presidential elections,” he said.

“What is important is the credibility of these elections and that all parties will accept the results, whatever they are.”

Security sources said 25 armed police would be posted inside each one of the nearly 1,000 polling stations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with members of other security services stationed outside the booths. The ballot boxes are due to be delivered on Tuesday afternoon.

Despite a ban on campaigning in the final hours before polls, only telephone workers could be seen removing electoral banners from telegraph polls in order to carry out repair work.

The last polls forecast a narrow win for Fatah, the faction which has dominated Palestinian politics for decades, despite a late surge by Hamas which is contesting its first parliamentary election after boycotting the only other contest a decade ago.

Fatah campaign manager Nabil Shaath expressed confidence the faction would win a “big majority” and would be able to make progress in the peace process provided right-wingers do not triumph at an Israeli general election in March.

Hamas has been seeking to cash in on voter disillusionment with Fatah over the stalled peace process, widespread corruption and by claiming that its fighters forced Israel to pull out of the Gaza Strip last summer.

A Hamas victory or strong enough showing to demand a seat in government would present a major stumbling block to the peace process with Israel warning that it will refuse to do business with a government that includes a faction which does not recognise the Jewish state’s right to exist.

Mahmud Zahar, Hamas’s leader in the Gaza Strip, told a final news conference that it would not be ‘illicit’ to hold negotiations.

Israeli Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that he will not do business with a government that includes any ‘terrorist organisation’.—AFP