RAMALLAH, Oct 1: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party far outstripped militant group Hamas in a round of West Bank municipal elections seen as a test of political clout before next year’s parliamentary polls.

Fatah official Jamal al Shobaki said on Saturday that final results gave Fatah control of nearly half the 104 West Bank municipal councils contested on Thursday.

He said Fatah won 51 councils in the third round of West Bank and Gaza municipal elections. Hamas, which will challenge Fatah for the first time in the January parliamentary elections, took 13. Other parties won 40 councils.

The results showed that Hamas, which has about 30 per cent support in opinion polls, had not made quite such a strong showing as it did in the first two rounds of municipal ballots in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.—Reuters