Hamas wins elections in 3 cities

JERUSALEM – The militant Islamic group Hamas won local elections in three major cities in the West Bank, according to provisional results released Friday, dealing a heavy blow to the ruling Fatah party ahead of Palestinian parliamentary elections next month.

Fatah, which is led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, has been plagued by internal discord and charges of corruption that have benefited Hamas, which has won grass-roots support through its welfare programs and reputation for honest community service.

Listed as a terrorist group by the United States, Hamas calls for the destruction of Israel and has killed scores of Israelis in suicide bombings, though it has scaled back its attacks this year since the declaration of a truce.

The biggest Hamas victory was in Nablus, a commercial hub and the second-largest city in the West Bank. Preliminary results showed Hamas receiving about 70 percent of the vote, winning 13 of the 15 seats on the city council. The two remaining seats went to independent candidates backed by Fatah.

In Jenin, Hamas won eight seats, while the seven others went to a coalition of Fatah and the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

In El-Bireh, next to Ramallah, Hamas won nine seats, a coalition of Fatah and other factions won four, and two other seats went to independent candidates.

Even in Ramallah, which is the Palestinian seat of government, Fatah did not gain a majority, winning six seats in a coalition with other factions. An independent list won six other seats, and the remaining three went to Hamas.

The poor showing by Fatah in Thursday’s vote was widely attributed to deep divisions in the movement, whose young leadership broke away this week to run in a separate slate in the parliamentary election next month.

“We are extremely worried,” said Ziad Abu Ein, a senior Fatah official. He said Fatah voters were alienated by the leadership’s failure to choose popular candidates and by outbursts of street violence by gunmen from the party’s armed wing, Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.

Young leaders of Fatah, led by Marwan Barghouti, the jailed leader of the Palestinian uprising, have formed a separate list to run in the Jan. 25 parliamentary poll, accusing Abbas and the party’s veteran leadership of putting cronies high on the Fatah slate, ignoring results of primaries won by members of the young guard.