Fatah claims Palestinian election victory In Nablus, Ramallah and Jenin, early results indicate that Fatah was beaten. The Hamas boycott should have delivered a landslide victory for Fatah. Instead, the polls delivered an expression of Palestinian disenchantment. The Palestinian Authority declared the elections a victory for the Palestinian people, with initial figures suggesting that 54 per cent of those eligible to vote turned out to cast their ballot. Nour Odeh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority, said that even by international standards this was a solid figure. "We are very proud of the results," Ms Odeh said. We are still hoping that elections will be held in Gaza. A person's right to vote cannot be held hostage to any political faction," she added. However, voting took place in only 92 of the region's 353 municipalities. More than 80 villages were unable to produce candidate lists- a symptom, Hamas claims, of Fatah intimidation. In a further 181 districts, only one candidate list was registered rendering polling unnecessary. A second round of elections will be held on November 24th for these boroughs. Hamas has refused to recognise the election results. We have seen the detention of Hamas supporters and interrogations as recently as one month ago. Some of these interrogations focused on the elections, warning Hamas members that they should not participate," explained Abdur Rahman Zaydan, Minister for Works for Hamas in the 2006 government. As a result, we do not recognise these elections as a legitimate expression of the Palestinian peoples' will. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights also questioned the legitimacy of the polls, "in light of the limiting of public freedoms and continuing widespread violations of human rights by the PA." Robert Serry, the United Nation's peace envoy, had expressed hopes that these municipal elections would "serve as a prelude to general elections being organised next year in all of the occupied Palestinian territory in the context of reconciliation" between Hamas and Fatah.