ELECTION WIN CELEBRATED

HAMAS supporters yesterday celebrated a landslide student election win at a top West Bank university in the occupied Palestinian territory. Hamas’s Al Wafaa’ Islamic bloc won 28 of the 51 seats on the student council at Birzeit University, the first time Islamist candidates have gained control. The bloc aligned with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s secular Fatah movement won 18 seats. The Palestinian population has not been to the polls since 2006 because of Israel’s refusal to allow voting in east Jerusalem. |