SINJIL, West Bank — Subhiya Hussein is the kind of voter Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah political faction has come to dread.

Like most other Palestinians, the 40-year-old housewife and mother of five voted for Abbas in January. But yesterday, she voted for Islamist candidates aligned with the Hamas movement in municipal elections in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Fed up with the lack of electricity and water at home and with unpaved, one-lane roads unable to accommodate traffic in this growing Fatah stronghold 11 miles northeast of Ramallah, Hussein said she wanted someone who could get the job done.

"I voted for those who pray and go to the mosque," Hussein said.

She was one of more than 2,000 residents in Singil who voted in the largest round of municipal elections since December, when the Islamic militant group Hamas made significant gains. Preliminary results will be announced today.

Political parties aren't important, she said. "I just want someone who will provide services."

The appeal of piety threatens to derail the secular Fatah party, which has controlled the Palestinian Authority since the quasi-governmental body was established with the 1993 Oslo Accord.

Now, allegations of corruption and a lingering war with Israel have left most Palestinians fed up with seeing the same people in power, year after year.

While one exit poll yesterday indicated Fatah had won some 51 percent of the municipal seats, Hamas and another militant faction, Islamic Jihad, were expected to gain political ground. More than 2,500 candidates vied for seats in 76 Palestinian villages, towns and cities across the West Bank and eight in the Gaza Strip.

The Islamist candidates in the West Bank don't openly associate with Hamas, a move that could bring reprisals from Israel, but they're accused by Fatah of working in parallel with the militant organization and benefiting from its image as being above corruption.

A February poll by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion found that piety was the most important quality voters said they were seeking in the candidates they planned to support in July's parliamentary elections. The poll of 944 Palestinians had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.19 percentage points.

The surge in religious candidates threatens Abbas' already weakening hold on power at a time he's unable to offer Palestinians meaningful relief from their daily struggles with Israeli military checkpoints and growing unemployment.

Expected electoral gains by Hamas, which the State Department calls a terrorist group, could also raise questions about the Bush administration's promotion of democracy in the Middle East.