JERUSALEM – The Hamas militant group captured a majority of seats in Palestinian legislative elections, according to officials in Hamas and the ruling Fatah Party, a shocking victory that could throw Mideast peace prospects into turmoil.
Officials with Fatah conceded that Hamas had won about 70 seats, which would give the Islamists a majority in the 132-seat parliament. They spoke on condition of anonymity because counting in some districts was continuing.
Earlier, Hamas’ top candidate, Ismail Haniyeh, said the group won 70 seats. A second Hamas official said the group had captured 75 seats – 31 in voting for national lists and 44 in district voting. The numbers came from Hamas supporters involved in the vote count.
Opinion polls had forecast a narrow Fatah victory. Official results were expected later today.
Hamas, which has committed dozens of suicide bombings against Israel, has ruled out talks with the Jewish state.
Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel cannot trust a Palestinian leadership in which the Islamic group Hamas has a role, his office said early today.
“Israel can’t accept a situation in which Hamas, in its present form as a terror group calling for the destruction of Israel, will be part of the Palestinian Authority without disarming,” Olmert told U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden in a meeting Wednesday, according to Olmert’s office. “I won’t hold negotiations with a government that does not stick to its most basic obligation of fighting terror.”
Israel is willing to help the Palestinians and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas “a great deal” but only if they crack down on militants, Olmert said.
Israel has repeatedly asked Abbas to force Hamas and other militant groups to disarm but Abbas has refused, warning such an act could cause civil war.
An exit poll by Bir Zeit University in Ramallah had showed Fatah winning 63 seats in the 132-member parliament with 46.4 percent of the vote, and Hamas taking 58 seats with 39.5 percent. Smaller parties received 11 seats, according to the poll of 8,000 voters at 232 polling stations. The poll had a one-seat margin of error.
A second survey showed Fatah beating Hamas 42 percent to 35 percent, or 58 seats to 53.
Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian Authority negotiator who won re-election to parliament in his West Bank home town of Jericho, indicated that options were open.
“It’s premature to speak now about the shape and form of the Cabinet,” he said, “but I can tell you that this will be the beginning of a new Palestinian political life, a new horizon.”
Before the election, pollsters said the race was too close to call. Hamas made a stronger showing than the 30 percent that many pollsters expected.
The election was the Palestinians’ first truly competitive vote, and officials hoped it would help cement democracy in the post-Yasser Arafat era. But it also gave unprecedented clout to Hamas, which carried out dozens of suicide bombings against Israel and is listed as a terror group by the United States and European Union.
After voting ended, President Bush said Washington would not deal with Hamas unless it renounced violence against Israel. “Not until you renounce your desire to destroy Israel will we deal with you,” he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
The election will usher in a new parliament and Cabinet, but Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who was elected president last year, will remain head of the Palestinian Authority regardless of the results.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flooded polling stations throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip for a vote to determine how Palestinians wanted to be governed and whether they would pursue negotiations or confrontation with Israel.
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