...as vote officials resign

Dozens of Palestinian election officials resigned yesterday, complaining of intimidation and irregularities in the vote that President Mahmoud Abbas won in a landslide.

The resignations could dent Abbas's claim to a popular mandate to make peace with Israel, although officials at the Central Elections Commission who resigned said they thought the vote was still free and fair.

They complained Abbas's campaigners and security services had coerced them into extending the voting period by two hours. At least five senior officials and dozens of more junior workers quit.

"Our resignation is a warning to the Palestinian Authority to take measures not to repeat what happened in the presidential elections in the legislative elections (in July)," said official Baha Bakri.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which boycotted the vote, said the resignations cast doubt on the election results and called for an investigation.

"We in the Hamas movement see a sign in the resignations of the Palestinian Elections Commission officials of big question marks over the credibility of the results," Hamas said in a statement issued in Beirut.

Abbas was sworn in yesterday as successor to Yasser Arafat. International observers had not reported problems in last Sunday's election, hailed by commentators as one of the fairest in the Arab world.

"Because the commission was forced to take the decisions on election day due to pressures, we did not achieve what we had hoped to achieve," chief elections officer Ammar Dweik said in his resignation letter.

"I reiterate that the elections were free, fair and democratic despite those decisions."

Voting was extended last Sunday at a point when turnout looked very patchy in parts of the West Bank, raising questions over whether Abbas had a popular mandate.

The election officials said that according to the law, voting could only be extended if there were queues at polling stations and that had not been the case.