President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party won 51 councils in Palestinian local elections with militant group Hamas gaining control of 13, an official said when announcing the final results on Saturday. Of the 104 municipalities up for grabs in the occupied West Bank in the third phase of Palestinian local elections, 40 went to other factions, said Jamal al-Shobaki, head of the Higher Commission for Local Elections.The result is seen as a first indicator of voter sympathies for the main Palestinian factions ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for January 2006. "The electoral process was very successful and it was praised by local and international observers ... it is a success for the entire Palestinian people," Shobaki said. He said the result was disappointing for Hamas, a group bent on the destruction of Israel, while Fatah would probably be able to take control in many of the councils where it did not gain an overall majority. "We expect Hamas to gain no more than one more municipality while Fatah would probably form alliances with other factions in municipalities won by others to increase their foothold," he said.