Martyr Yasser Arafat Student Bloc, which represents Fatah Movement, won the majority (23 seats) of the 51 seats of the Birzeit University Students Council Conference in the elections that took place on campus yesterday. Islamic Wafa' Student Bloc (Hamas) got 22 seats while the Student Pole Bloc (the leftist groups) got 3 seats and Student Forum Bloc (Independents) got 2 seats and Islamic Group (Islamic Jihad Movement) got 1 seat. The students of Shabibeh group in the university headed after announcing the results to the Muqata where representatives of the bloc met with President Abbas who came out from his headquarters and congratulated the students and awarded the victory to the soul of martyr Yasser Arafat. The results constitute a victory to Fatah Movement since Hamas Movement remained controlling the majority of the seats in the Students Council for the last five years. President Abbas told the students: Our people and their leadership are facing difficult tests and major challenges and victory brings more victories. What is important is to continue with successes.

The results show the difficulties that face the major blocs since according to the proportional representation system ratified in 1993, any bloc needs 51% of the seats of the conference in order to be able to form the student council which consists of 11 members. This means that neither Fatah nor Hamas can form alone the secretariat of the council and they need the small blocs to get a coalition of 26 seats of the conference.

Published at Al Hayat al Jadida Newspaper on April 13, 2005