Candidates linked to the Islamist group Hamas won the largest share of seats on a university student council on Wednesday, in a ballot that offered a rare test of voter sentiment for Palestinians, who had their last parliamentary elections almost two decades ago.
In a campus festooned with green, red and yellow political banners, the Hamas-affiliated list won 25 seats on the 51-seat Birzeit University student council, against 20 for the group associated with Fatah, the party of President Mahmoud Abbas.
With no parliamentary elections since 2006, the process is also a check on the political pulse of a geographically and politically divided Palestinian nation as speculation mounts over the future of its octogenarian president.
