Hamas and the Palestinian Elections

Chief Wiggum, regular reader and valued commenter on ComingAnarchy, has forwarded me a most interesting article on Hamas’ recent win in Palestine which gets into Palestinian election law and the reality of what happened. Much ink has already been spilled over the issue but the article is well worth one’s attention as it puts the election in an entirely different light. And lastly a reminder to readers, don’t hesitate to contact us with articles like this or suggestions for future articles!

A close look at the final results of last month’s Palestinian election shows that the apparent landslide that gave Hamas 74 of the 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council and only 45 to the once-dominant Fatah movement was, in the words of one analyst, “an optical illusion.”

Under a new system introduced by the Fatah-dominated council last year, the election was divided into two parts. Sixty-six seats were elected according to national lists of candidates, with seats apportioned according to the percentage of votes received by each party. The remaining 66 were allocated among 16 different districts, where voters cast a separate ballot for individuals to represent each district.

[...] “In reality, a clear majority of Palestinians voted against the Hamas,” said Gershon Baskin, co-director of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information. “What happened is that Hamas presented a unified list in each district, while Fatah and others had a multiplicity of candidates, which caused great divisions.”