In the first municipal election since Arafat came to power in 1976, Palestinians yesterday voted to elect members of the local councils in 26 towns and settlements.

"We need democracy and this is just the beginning," said Amjad Jaber, official scrutineer at a polling station in Jericho.

The elections are largely seen as a test-run ahead of the presidential elections scheduled for January, where Mahmoud Abbas, the new chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, can be expected to win, and the parliamentary elections that will take place next year.

Yesterday 140,000 voters were voting on the lists comprising about 800 candidates. For the first time in the history of the Palestinian Autonomy, 16% of the seats will be taken by women. About one-sixth of the candidates are women.

"There is a sense of excitement among women that at last they will have someone to represent them," said Maysoon Barahime, a woman candidate of the Jericho Bloc for All.

Voting did not include party lists, although many of the candidates are members of Mahmoud Abbas’s leading party, and candidates associated with Hamas appear on the ballots for the first time.