2006年VOA标准英语-Palestinians Vote Under Heavy Security

By Jim Teeple
Ramallah
25 January 2006

Palestinians voted under heavy security on Wednesday to select a new 132-seat Legislative¹ Council or parliament. 

Palestinian women supporters of Hamas gather outside a polling station in West Bank village of Betunia near Ramallah, January 25, 2006  
  
Polling stations were busy all across Ramallah, the West Bank city where the Palestinian Legislative Council will meet in a new session in March.

The battle over who will control that legislature got off to an early start at the Koranic Boys School in the Jenan neighborhood of Ramallah.

Voters appeared evenly divided between supporters of the ruling Fatah Party of President Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas, the Islamic militant² group which ran in Wednesday's election under the party name of Reform and Change. University Professor Jawdat Manna, a Fatah supporter, said while he hoped Fatah would win a convincing victory, he welcomed the participation³ of multiple parties in the election.

"There are many choices because groups like Hamas have come into the elections," he said. "We believe that it will support democracy in this country although they face difficulties from abroad, like countries like the United States that opposes Hamas. But here we believe that we have to bring all the groups into the election."

Many Ramallah voters were seeking a change on Wednesday and most who said they wanted change said they wanted a Hamas victory. Student Ahmad abu Quake said he cast his vote for Hamas, saying he was fed up with what he described as 10 years of misrule by Fatah.

"...We tried them [Fatah] 10 years. They [Fatah] were a failure in politics, they were a failure in giving services, they were a failure in everything. They are corrupt," he said.

Nadr Sa'id, the Director of the Development Studies Program at Bir Zeit University in Ramallah and a leading pollster of Palestinian political opinion, says differences evident on election day go deeper than politics and indicate a split along cultural lines within Palestinian society.

"On the social, ideological⁴ and cultural issues we will see that many fights will take place now and it will be extremely vicious," said Sa'id. "The real fight now in this election is between the secular⁵ and the religious for the most part. I think this is the main cause of this fierce fight. For the first time there is a chance for the religious and the secular to settle their long term subtle and indirect disputes and now it is time to resolve this once and for all."

If Hamas wins enough seats in the legislative elections it could be offered seats in the next Palestinian cabinet, a prospect⁶ that has alarmed not only Israel, but also the United States and the European Union, who consider Hamas a terrorist organization and have threatened to cut off development aid to Palestinians if Hamas enters any Palestinian government without first renouncing⁷ violence and disarming⁸ its militants⁹.

Hamas officials have said they have no intention of either changing their charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel, or disarming, saying they will not allow outside forces to dictate¹⁰ the terms of how they gain political power.

1 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

2 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

3 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。

4 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

5 secular   

n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的

参考例句：

• We live in an increasingly secular society.我们生活在一个日益非宗教的社会。
• Britain is a plural society in which the secular predominates.英国是个世俗主导的多元社会。

6 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

7 renouncing   

v.声明放弃( renounce的现在分词 )；宣布放弃；宣布与…决裂；宣布摒弃

参考例句：

• He enraged the government by renouncing the agreement. 他否认那项协议，从而激怒了政府。 来自辞典例句
• What do you get for renouncing Taiwan and embracing Beijing instead? 抛弃台湾，并转而拥抱北京之后，你会得到什么？ 来自互联网

8 disarming   

adj.消除敌意的，使人消气的v.裁军( disarm的现在分词 )；使息怒

参考例句：

• He flashed her a disarming smile. 他朝她笑了一下，让她消消气。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We will agree to disarming troops and leaving their weapons at military positions. 我们将同意解除军队的武装并把武器留在军事阵地。 来自辞典例句

9 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

10 dictate   

v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令

参考例句：

• It took him a long time to dictate this letter.口述这封信花了他很长时间。
• What right have you to dictate to others?你有什么资格向别人发号施令？