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Keep in mind however that 70% of potential voters didn't get to vote either
because of obstacles put in their way. An effort was made to make voting
easy for Fatah voters and hard to impossible for Hamas. Therefore the win
for Hamas is in fact bigger than a few percentage points.<br>
Joanna<br>
<br>
Stuart Elliott wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid05a301c62398$7236e840$230110ac@MAIN">
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<div><a href="">http://newappeal.blogspot.com/2006/01/hamas-victory-artificial-sweep.html</a></div>
<div> </div>
<div>Hamas's stunning victory has been described as a "sweeping victory." However,
the lopsided "wide margin" in the Palestinian Parliament is largely the
result of an electoral system that is even more disproportionate than the
US or Canadian First-Past-The-Post system, rather than a overwhelming </div>
<div> </div>
<div>The Palestinian system featured two tiers (1) multi-member districts
and (2) a national proportional list. The multi-member districts reward
parties with greater discipline and punish ticket- splitting. More than
100 Fatah members ran as independents and there were several smaller lists
which appealed to Fatah voters.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>The system was designed to benefit Fatah but it ended up helping Hamas.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Hamas has won apparently 76 seats, Fatah 43, and other parties and
independents 13.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Looking at the actual votes on the nationalist, shows a relatively
close division of opinion.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Here are the national proportional results</div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
<p align="left">Hamas 434,817 (30 seats)</p>
<p align="left">Fatah Movement 403,458 (27 seats)</p>
<p align="left">Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa (PFLP) 41,671 (3 seats)</p>
<p align="left">The Alternative 28,779 (coalition of t<font size="2">he
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the Palestinian
People's Party, and the Palestinian Democratic Union Party)</font> (2 seats)</p>
<p align="left">Independent Palestine (Mustafa Barghouti) 26,554 (2 seats)</p>
<p align="left">The Third Way 23,513 ( 2 seats)</p>
<p align="left">(Doesn't include votes for list that didn't make the threshold.)</p>
<p align="left">Among other things this means that the exit polls were
not that wrong. The difference between the predicted narrow Fatah victory
and the actual Hamas victory was not that great. </p>
<p align="left">It may also explain why Fatah is eager to go into opposition.
</p>
<p align="left"> </p>
<p align="left">Stuart Elliott</p>
<p align="left"><a href="">http://newappeal.blogspot.com/</a><br>
<a href="">www.ksworkbeat.org</a></p>
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