I’ve been reading a Q&A with a WaPo reporter; best line was the commenter who observed that “the dog finally caught the car,” reflecting the consensus view that HAMAS neither expected nor wanted to win the election.

The WaPo thread also gave a link to the official election site, where you can see the actual results, which are staggering.

HAMAS won 76 seats in the new legislature, 30 of the 66 “national list” seats and 46 of the 66 “local” seats. HAMAS actually won over 75% of the local seats that it was eligible to contest, as six seats were reserved for Christian candidates.

FATAH took 27 of the “slate” seats and 16 of the “local” seats, including all six seats reserved for Christian candidates.

HAMAS and FATAH were not the only terror groups running national slates; the third highest vote-getter, winning three seats, was the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Three of the other eight lists on the ballot–the leftist “Badil,” Mustafa Barghouti’s “Independent Palestine,” and the Fayyad/Ashrawi “Third Way,” won two seats apiece.

The four local seats not won by HAMAS or FATAH went to “independent” candidates.

By my count, that’s a 91% vote for the terror factions on the national ballot, with at most 10 of 132 legislators unaffiliated with terror groups.

Hooray for democracy.