Palestinians postpone elections as Sharon is hit by fraud blow

Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority postponed presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for January 20 yesterday, claiming it could not run them.

Sa'eb Erakat, a senior Palestinian peace negotiator, said: "The Israeli government has made it impossible for us to hold them on time." Officials had been unable to register the 1.3 million voters or train the 30,000 staff needed to run the elections.

"We can't do it when our cities are under curfew, when our villages and refugee camps are sealed. Israeli incursions, occupation and assassinations have obstructed all our efforts." A cabinet statement said the elections would be held "immediately after the occupation forces pull back".

The road to re-election is not running smoothly for Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, either. Polls show the sleaze factor eroding support for his Likud party, which had previously looked so strong. The police fraud squad last week held 10 party activists on suspicion of selling votes in the primaries for Likud parliamentary candidates. Two have been placed under house arrest and a third has been remanded in custody. Detectives are also planning to talk to MPs.

A poll in the daily Ma'ariv found Likud winning 35 seats in the 120-member Knesset on January 28, four down on the previous week. This reduced its lead over Labour from 17 seats to 12, though Labour's haul has risen by only one seat. Up to 28 per cent of the poll sample said recent allegations of corruption had affected their voting. Disaffected Likud voters have swung to the militantly secularist Shinui, which won six seats in 1999 and could take 12 this time.

Haim Ramon, Labour's public relations chief, said: "The important thing is that they left the Likud. That is the trend we want to create – a rest with Shinui, then a switch to us."