Uneven race may chill Palestinian turnout.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Michael Matza

JERUSALEM _ As Palestinians prepare to vote in their first presidential election since 1996, one challenge facing front-runner Mahmoud Abbas is the threat that a significant number of registered voters might not go to the polls because the outcome seems preordained.

Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, is the clear favorite in a field of seven. Some polls predict he will get at least 75 percent of the vote.

While 80 percent of registered Palestinian voters cast ballots in recent local council elections, participation in the Jan. 9 presidential contest could be lower, some political observers say.

"Abu Mazen and his aides are afraid that the voters won't even come," Arab affairs columnist Danny Rubinstein wrote recently in the Israeli daily Haaretz. "An especially low voter turnout could be interpreted as a lack of confidence in the new leader."

Compounding concerns about voter indifference, the groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have called for a boycott of the presidential race so they can avoid recognizing the governing Palestinian Authority, which they consider illegitimate because it came to life through interim peace agreements with Israel.

While nonvoters could abstain for a variety of reasons, there is concern in Abbas' camp that Hamas and Islamic Jihad will claim them all as fundamentalist-inspired boycotters.