GAZA CITY, December 6, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Women, including the wives and widows of notable political figures, and detainees in Israeli jails will run in the January's Palestinian legislative elections.

Under a new quota system, the number of women deputies will increase to at least 13 within the 132-seat Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), up from its current total of five, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

A record number of women belonging to resistance factions like Hamas are also expected to contest the parliamentary elections on January 25.

One of them is Rasha Rantissi, whose husband Hamas leader Abdelaziz Rantissi was assassinated by Israel last year.

"Women in Hamas have played many roles, particularly in the municipal councils, so why not in the PLC?" Rantissi told AFP at her home in Gaza City.

"We haven't seen the list yet, but all Hamas women are qualified to be on the list and be candidates of the PLC."

Sources close to Hamas say the wife of senior official Ismail Haniyeh is also expected to run.

Many women have run in the ongoing municipal elections, the first in 28 years.

In the first round, which took place in the West Bank a year ago, a record 139 women took part in the ballot and won an impressive 52 seats on local councils -- nearly 17 percent of the total. Similar results have been recorded in subsequent rounds.

Wafa Abdel Rahman, director of media outlet Filastiniya and one of the activists who lobbied for the quota system, says some of those running for election are not necessarily advocating a women-centric agenda.

"Rasha Rantissi is not running as a woman but as the wife of somebody who was killed by Israel," she told AFP.

"She is running on the basis of her husband's legacy," she said. "Women's involvement in politics has definitely increased, but it's not about just having women represented per se, but about having women who can bring a women's agenda to the table."

Last week, Fadwa Barghuti, wife of jailed Intifada leader Marwan Barghuti, also announced she would run in this month's local elections.

"Before the introduction of the quotas, very few women were involved in politics," she told AFP.

"But now, there will be more than a thousand women represented in the local municipalities because according to the law, every municipality must have two women."

Women represent just over 47 percent of the 1.34 million registered voters in the Palestinian territories, and their entry into politics will definitely have an impact on the broader political picture, she said.

"This will certainly have an impact on Palestinian political regime because women represent half of the population in the Palestinian territories, and now we are represented in both the local and legislative councils."

Senior Hamas leader Moahmmad Ghazal is expected to run in the elections.

Palestinians detainees locked inside darkish Israeli prisons could also see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Though away from the public eye, detainees can easily be spotted on the candidate lists of vying parties.

Chief among the detainee candidates is Marwan Barghuti, Fatah leader in the West Bank.

Despite being behind Israeli bars, Barghuti’s political clout was demonstrated by winning 96 percent of Fatah primaries to choose candidates to run in the elections.

According to an opinion poll published last month, Fatah would secure its strongest showing if Barghuti, who is already an MP, stands as the head of the parliamentary faction.

Hamas has further fielded seven of its members jailed in Israel, including three senior leaders.

Well-placed sources named the three leaders as Mohammad Jamal Al-Natsha, Saleh Al-Arori and Jamal Abul Haija.

Press reports further said that senior leader Hassan Yusuf and Mohammad Ghazal, who were arrested by Israeli special forces, top the movement’s ticket.

Jailed Ahmad Saadat, the secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), is also topping the list of the PFLP’s election list.

Independent detainees at Jericho jails, which have been run by the US and UK since 2002, are also eyeing parliamentary seats.

The Organization of Palestinian Prisoners’ Supporters has called on the PLC to issue an exceptional new law allowing prisoners’ deputies or relatives to run in the elections on their behalf.

Hazem Balousha, the media officer of the Central Electoral Commission, said the commission has offered Israel proposals to facilitate prisoners’ participation in the elections through placing ballot boxes inside Israeli jails and inviting UN and Red Cross monitors, but to no avail.