Militants pledge to ensure smooth Palestinian vote

Well, if there's anybody who can ensure a peaceful voting process it's the militants who disrupted them the first time.

Militant groups pledged on the eve of Palestinian elections to prevent any attempt to disrupt voting in the poll, which could usher the powerful Hamas movement into government for the first time.

Makes sense. Why would Hamas want to disrupt a vote that could usher them into political power? You have got to hand it to those militants, they know when to turn the fire down.

A statement issued by seven militant groups, including Hamas and two armed wings of Fatah, said they had reached "an agreement of honour" to send unarmed observers to assist Palestinian police protecting polling stations.
But the groups said the militants' weapons would not be far away.

Nicely done militants. Nothing says peaceful process like a little subtle threat thrown in for good measure. Anyone else get the feeling that, regardless of the votes outcome, some group, somewhere, is going to be upset enough to go get those "close by" weapons and protest in the only way the Middle East seems to be able to protest?(involving fire, other countries flags and random violence)