GAZA, May 5 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Palestinians headed Thursday, May 5, to the polling stations to cast their votes in the second round of municipal elections, with observers seeing the process a test of power for the Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, and President Mahmoud Abbas’s troubled Fatah movement.

More than 2,500 candidates were vying for seats on 84 municipal councils across the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip in what could be a test of sentiment over the halting pace of political and security reforms pledged by Abbas.

“I think this election is a sort of referendum on Abu Mazen’s policies,” voter Amal Salahat told Reuters in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, referring to Abbas by his popular nickname.

A Palestinian legislative election is set for July 17, but a senior Palestinian official said Thursday it could be put off because of disputes over electoral law amendments.

A deeper concern in Fatah is that it could get hammered by Hamas in the Islamists’ first venture into general elections unless the vote is postponed to give Abbas more time to curb corruption and lawlessness as many Palestinians demand, according to Reuters.

“We need more time to prepare,” a senior Fatah official told Reuters. “There are no guarantees we can win over Hamas.”

Hamas’ West Bank leader, Hassan Youssef said the group would insist the parliamentary election is held as scheduled.

Thursday’s voting was held three months into a fragile ceasefire that Abbas forged with Israel and US-led mediators hope will revive peace negotiations aimed at a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

Hamas is anchoring the truce by resistance groups after a 4-1/2-year Intifadah against Israeli occupation.

Some 400,000 Palestinians were eligible to vote Thursday and turnout was brisk -- 60 percent in Gaza and 45 percent in the West Bank by mid-afternoon, election committee members were quoted by Reuters as saying.

Analysts expected neck-and-neck races for local government positions as Fatah, dogged by a reputation for graft, disarray and remote leadership, tried to rebound from its trouncing by Hamas in a January round of voting in 10 Gaza municipalities.

Hamas, which previously boycotted elections, has gained popularity from its armed resistance against the Israeli occupation, religious piety and charity work for the many poor in the absence of welfare support from the Fatah-run Palestinian Authority.

The group also made a strong showing in voting for 26 West Bank councils in December, though Fatah ultimately won more seats. Hamas candidates Thursday ran on the slogan “partners in blood, partners in decision-making”. Some voters said they wanted power-sharing after decades of Fatah domination.

A recent poll showed backing for Fatah slipped to 36 percent in March from 40 percent late last year, extending a downward trend, while Hamas support rose to 25 percent from 18 percent.

Abbas, who took office in January, has vowed reforms to weed out unaccountable, incompetent officials and establish law and order. Last month he forcibly retired loyalists of the late Yasser Arafat in a security service revamp.

But there have been few tangible results of his drive.

Before this year, there had been no municipal elections in teeming Gaza since the end of the British Mandate over Palestine in 1948. All current Gaza town officials are Fatah appointees.