Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction won a strong majority of the local elections held yesterday in local towns and villages throughout the Gaza Strip.

Out of 84 towns and villages holding elections, Fatah won a clear majority in 50 of them with the militant group Hamas, Fatah's main challenger, capturing a majority in 28 towns. The remaining six towns were still too close to call.

The election was a reaffirmation of the belief that most Palestinians are tired of the continuous violence of the intifadah and at least want to give Abbas' negotiations strategy a chance to work.

'All my family supports Fatah, and we think Abu Mazen (Abbas' nickname) is trying to do the right thing,' Ghaliah al-Sharif, 68, told the New York Times.

This election was the first time Hamas, which favors the destruction of Israel and the formation of an Islamic state, did not boycott the vote and openly ran candidates. Fatah, which has the strongest political organization in the territories, was still able to win a sizable majority of the seats.

The municipal elections were supposed to be a good indication of how things would go in national parliamentary elections scheduled to be held in mid-July. Today's returns spell good news for Mr. Abbas. Abbas will need to keep the prece process moving in the right direction for the next two-and-a-half months to get a nice majority in the national elections but at least it shows a majority of Palestinians wasn't to give him a chance to negotiate a peace settlement.