Supporters of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party were on Sunday claiming victory ahead of the results of the West Bank local elections, in the first such vote since 2006.

Supporters of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party were on Sunday claiming victory ahead of the results of the West Bank local elections, in the first such vote since 2006.

Late on Saturday, following 12 hours of voting in a ballot which was boycotted by the Hamas movement, Fatah supporters took to the streets of the southern city of Hebron celebrating their victory.

Fatah spokesman Ahmad Assaf said the party had won a "victory" throughout the West Bank, in what he described as "a major popular referendum on the movement's political program and its national performance," a statement said.

Polling stations shut at 1700 GMT on Saturday and preliminary results were not due out until 1600 GMT on Sunday.
Shortly after the end of voting, Central Elections Commission chairman Hanna Nasser said 277,000 out of the 505,600 eligible voters had cast ballots, putting the turnout at 54.8 percent.

"The elections went very smoothly," he told reporters in Ramallah.

The last time the Palestinians voted was in the general elections of January 2006, which Hamas movement won by a landslide.