A number of members of the Fatah movement have resigned after the crushing defeat of the party faced in the Birzeit University student council elections this week, the Middle East Monitor reported.
The Islamic Bloc, a Hamas student body, won a landslide victory in the Student Council of Birzeit University in the north of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday.
In response, Fatah’s Secretary in Ramallah and Al-Bireh, Muwaffaq Sahweil, as well as members of its organizing committees, stepped down.
The Hamas-linked Wafa group won 28 out of 51 seats on the student council, the university announced on Wednesday. The Fatah-linked Yasser Arafat student party have 18 seats https://t.co/sVxla6CsNC
— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) May 20, 2022
Local media reported that Sahweil has posted a letter on one of the movement’s closed groups on Facebook saying: “I have submitted my resignation … because I bear full responsibility [for the defeat], and I call on the movement to form an investigation committee, because I have a lot to say.”
“I am waiting to be summoned to appear before an investigative committee, and this is a final and irreversible decision,” he added.
A letter addressed to members of the Ramallah and Al-Bireh District Committee also revealed the resignation of the secretary and members of the Umm Al-Sharayet District Committee.
Palestinians celebrate the overwhelming historical victory of the Islamic Bloc, Hamas' student wing (28 seats out of 51), in the Student Council elections at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank. pic.twitter.com/42jFBNdQlv
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) May 18, 2022
The letter, dated Wednesday, said: “We submit our resignation from the membership of the regional committee in light of the disastrous results in the Birzeit University Student Council elections… We will remain loyal soldiers of the Fatah movement as long as we live.”
The Hamas-backed bloc won 28 seats with 5,060 votes, while the bloc supported by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah won a mere 18 seats with 3,379 votes.
The university said the voter turnout stood at 78.1 percent.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
