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Fatah 'wins Palestine election'
The ruling Fatah Party won a slim victory in the Palestinians' first parliamentary election in a decade, edging out Hamas and capturing enough seats to govern without the Islamic militants, according to exit polls.
The strong showing by Hamas, which was contesting its first election, reflected popular discontent with Fatah, the secular party that has led the Palestinian Authority since its creation 12 years ago and has been accused of widespread corruption and mismanagement.
The election was the Palestinians' first truly competitive vote and helped cement democracy in the post-Yasser Arafat era.
But it also gave unprecedented clout to Hamas, which calls for Israel's destruction and is listed as a terror group by the US and EU.
An exit poll by Bir Zeit University in Ramallah, showed Fatah winning 63 seats in the 132 member parliament with 46.4% of the vote and Hamas taking 58 with 39.5 per cent. Smaller parties received 11 seats, according to the poll of 8,000 voters in 232 polling stations. The poll had a one seat margin of error.
A second survey showed Fatah beating Hamas 42% to 35%.
If those results bear out, it would enable Fatah to form a governing coalition with some of the smaller parties, a scenario Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said he preferred.
In Gaza City, Fatah loyalists fired rifles out of car windows, sounded their horns and waved the yellow flag of their movement as they drove around the streets after getting word of the exit polls.
"Even though this is not the official result we have to celebrate," said 22-year-old Omar Abdel Al Raouf, waving an assault rifle from his car window. "The winner is the Palestinian people."
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flooded polling stations throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip for a vote that would determine how Palestinians wanted to be governed and whether they would pursue negotiations or confrontation with Israel.
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