Region | Palestinian Territories
Hamas set for shock win
A senior Hamas leader said that his party has won an outright majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament, a claim confirmed by a senior official in the ruling Fatah party.
- Agencies
- Published: 00:00 January 26, 2006
Gaza: A Hamas leader said that his party has won an outright majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament.
If his claim is true, then it would give the militant group enough seats to form a new government.
Ismail Haniyeh said: "Hamas has won more than 70 seats in Gaza and the West Bank, which gives it more than 50 percent of the vote."
His claims appeared to be backed up by anonymous officials inside the ruling Fatah party.
The Fatah officials said they expected Hamas to win around 70 seats.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because counting in some districts was continuing.
Hamas won a large majority of the 66 seats in electoral districts in the Palestinian parliament vote, election officials said on Thursday.
In the election, 132 seats were up for grabs - half chosen from party slates and half in districts. In the districts, Hamas won a vast majority of the seats, election officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the vote count was not complete.
The claim from Hamas is at odds with exit polls conducted during Wednesday's voting which showed Hamas had won at least 53 seats but that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement had got 58.
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