JERICHO, West Bank – Thousands of voters overwhelmed polling stations in scattered West Bank towns and villages yesterday as Palestinian Arabs enthusiastically voted in their first local elections in nearly three decades.

The polls gave Palestinian Arabs in 26 small communities a democratic dry run ahead of January 9 elections to replace Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestinian Authority. They also marked the first head-to-head electoral matchup between the ruling Fatah Party and the Islamic Hamas organization.

However, many voters said they were not interested in party affiliations, preferring to vote on local issues and, in some cases, clan loyalties. Prime Minister Qurei, who cast his ballot in the Jerusalem suburb of Abu Dis, praised the vote as “the first step toward the establishment of the Palestinian state.”

No major Palestinian Arab cities participated in yesterday’s poll. Voting in hundreds of other cities, towns, and villages is expected next year.

Election officials said they were stunned by the flood of voters – some of whom began gathering outside polling stations before daybreak and still had to wait for hours after the polls opened. The officials said it was a sign Palestinian Arabs are hungering for democracy. Some candidates handed out sandwiches and juice to people waiting on the long lines.

Turnout could exceed 90% of the 150,000 Palestinian Arabs eligible to vote, officials said.

“Just the crush of people was totally unexpected,” said the election official in charge of one station in the town of Jericho, Nasser Awanja. “Because it has been since 1976 that we have had elections, they are really fired up.”

Voters who waited more than four hours in sometimes chaotic conditions to cast their ballots in Jericho complained election officials were not properly prepared, and there were not enough voting booths. Many voting stations in Jericho opened half an hour after the official 7 a.m. start time because the ballot boxes were delivered late.

“It doesn’t matter, one or two hours. I’m going to vote,” said farmer Nabil Abu Kattan, 48.

The elections yesterday are to replace the mayors and councilors who were appointed over the past three decades, first by the Israeli military and later by the Palestinian Authority.

Fearing a strong showing by the increasingly popular Hamas, Arafat was reluctant to allow municipal elections. Before his death last month, Arafat finally agreed to hold a limited poll.

The 26 communities chosen for the first round are Fatah strongholds, said Ali Jarbawi, former head of the Central Elections Commission.

The vote, with about 800 candidates vying for 360 local council seats, marked the first time Fatah and Hamas competed in elections. Hamas, which is pledged to Israel’s destruction, boycotted the 1996 general election won by Arafat as a byproduct of interim peace deals with Israel.

Hamas is boycotting the presidential election next month but plans to field candidates in future parliamentary and local elections. The enthusiasm for the vote was clear throughout Jericho, the world’s oldest continuously populated town. The oasis in the parched Jordan River Valley is an isolated part of the West Bank that has been largely bypassed in the four-year conflict.