Islamic bloc wins in Birzeit University student elections

The student group affiliated with the Hamas movement won the most seats in student council elections in Birzeit University in the central occupied West Bank yesterday, the school reported.

In a press release, Birzeit University reported that the Al-Wafaa Islamic Bloc won 25 of the 51 student council seats, compared to the Martyr Yasser Arafat faction, which seized 22 seats. This is the third year in a row that the faction has come on top in the elections

The Democratic Progressive Student Pole (Al-Qutub), affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), won four seats, while other competing factions did not gather enough votes to claim any seats.

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The Islamic Bloc maintained the same number of seats as in the 2016 student council elections, while the Martyr Arafat faction gained one seat, at the expense of Al-Qutub.

Dean of Student Affairs Muhammad Al-Ahmad said that 74 per cent of the university’s 10,859 students participated in the election.

The Birzeit student elections are closely watched by political observers across the country, as the university is considered to be the West Bank’s most prestigious centre of higher education and a hub of political activism.