Fatah beats Hamas in close race in West Bank student vote

NABLUS, West Bank -- The main Palestinian movement Fatah won a test of strength against Islamic militants in a key West Bank student election yesterday, boosting Mahmoud Abbas in his campaign to succeed Yasser Arafat as president.

In an upset victory after a tight race, a pro-Fatah bloc won 38 seats compared with 36 of the previously dominant Hamas on the student council of an-Najah University in Nablus.

The Islamic bloc lost significant ground from the 48 seats it had held since the last student election in 2001. It was also the first victory for Fatah since it lost a majority in a close race in 1995 when Hamas gained ground.

Students supporting the militant Islamic Jihad group won two seats and leftist parties won five seats in the election at an-Najah, the West Bank's largest university and a barometer of political sentiment among young Palestinians.

Fatah has nominated veteran senior moderate Abbas to replace Arafat, who died Nov. 11, in a Jan. 9 presidential election.

It backs peace negotiations with Israel for a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, not expected to field presidential candidates, want Israel's destruction with an Islamic state in its place.

Students and faculty said Arafat's death may have tipped the vote in favor of Fatah as a tribute to the man who for decades led the Palestinian struggle for statehood.

''Nobody expected this huge victory for Fatah, not even Fatah itself," political science professor Nayef Abu Khalaf said. ''We feel there are several factors. One is the death of Arafat, the emotional factor. Definitely it had an effect."

He said the Fatah win was also a ''huge indication for the coming elections" in which front-runner Abbas, a former prime minister, will run against a handful of long shot challengers.

Abbas, 69, who has replaced Arafat as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in charge of contacts with Israel, lacks Arafat's popular base but is favored by Israel and the United States as a potential peacemaker.

Islamic groups such as Hamas are unlikely to run in the presidential poll but could pose a challenge to a new president as he tries to consolidate power.