Palestinian security personnel begin voting in PLC election

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http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/672965.html

Last update - 08:44 21/01/2006

Palestinian security personnel begin voting in PLC election

By The Associated Press

Thousands of members of the Palestinian security forces began casting ballots for parliamentary candidates Saturday shortly after 7 AM in the official start of voting for this week's Palestinian elections.

Some 58,000 security personnel 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 East Jerusalem. The mass deployment scheduled Wednesday is to prevent political violence.

The ruling Fatah Party faces a stiff challenge from the Islamic group Hamas, which is participating in a legislative vote for the first time. A poll released Friday put the two movements in a dead heat.


Palestinian gunmen on Friday shot and wounded an official from the Third Way party running in the Palestinian legislative election, a spokesman for the candidate said, marking the first such attack ahead of the vote.

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