Fatah officials say Hamas won PA elections

Haaretz.com (Excerpt) ^ | January 26, 2006 | Amos Harel, Arnon Regular and Amira Hass

[HAL9000]

Excerpt -

Officials in the ruling Fatah Party said Thursday that Hamas captured a majority of seats in Palestinian legislative elections, shortly after the militant group claimed victory.

The Fatah officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they expected Hamas to win 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.

[snip]

[pganini]

Saddam Hussein + Taliban aren't democracies. The fact is, Palestinian election is a democratic process.

[bill1952]

Saddam Hussein + Taliban aren't democracies.

Wrong. Saddam was simply the leader of the Baathist PARTY.

Iraq had elections just before invasion.
Maybe not the most free and open, but voting elections were held.

The Taliban were not foreign invaders, they were voted in.
The fact that they became dictatorial is of little importance; no more than the NAZI party became such.

BTW, that was another great terrorist group voted into power.

[pganini]

"Iraq had elections just before invasion.
Maybe not the most free and open, but voting elections were held."

When you have 99.9% voting for him, i'd say it's not a free election and hence, not a democracy.

[inquest]

...Iraq, where the candidates that were surrogates for Al-qaeda were soundly rejected.

Al-Qaeda condemned the election to begin with. The real question in Iraq is what about the surrogates for Iran.

[bill1952]

Yeah, right. When you have opposing parties competing in elections that are held at gunpoint by two competing terrorist grooups, then that is not a democracy.

Well spinmeister, that is my point, since you keep missing it. Simply apply it to Palestine. Thats not a democray.

[pganini]

They have two parties, at least, Fatah + Hamas :) Granted, both are not exactly peaceful, but there are at least two parties.

Hence, it's not 99.9% for Hamas or Fatah, though Hamas is the majority.

No one is forcing the Palestinian people to vote for Hamas. They chose it themselves, i think that speaks volume for the Palestinians.

[NavVet]

Yes, but there were slates of candidates that sounded an awful lot like the political arm of Al-Qaeda. All the parties that did well distanced themselves from Al-Qaeda and the Bathists.

[inquest]

When you have opposing parties competing in elections that are held at gunpoint by two competing terrorist grooups, then that is not a democracy.

So why, out of curiosity, is the administration saying that it is a democracy?

Bush: "So the Palestinians had an election yesterday, and the results of which remind me about the power of democracy. You see, when you give people the vote, you give people a chance to express themselves at the polls -- and if they're unhappy with the status quo, they'll let you know. That's the great thing about democracy, it provides a look into society."

[inquest]

All the parties that did well distanced themselves from Al-Qaeda and the Bathists.

Similar to the way the Palestinians distanced themselves from Fatah. The grass is always greener on the other side. They may have had enough of the particular dictatorship that they'd come to know and hate, but it remains to be seen whether they renounce dictatorship generally. And dictatorships get even harder to eradicate when they can plausibly claim a popular mandate. (and just to clear the air on this, "elected dictatorship" is not an oxymoron - just look at Venezuela)