Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations General Assembly, commented on the unofficial projections that Hamas won an outright majority of seats in the Palestinian parliamentary election. [Final results may take several hours or even a couple of days to announce.]
Any group that wishes to participate in the democratic process should ultimately disarm, because to carry weapons and participate in the democratic process and sit in Parliament — there is a fundamental contradiction, and I'm sure they are thinking about that, too.The Palestinian people appear to have chosen Hamas over Yasser Arafat's Fatah Party. The challenge for the Palestinians, Hamas, Fatah, the Israelis, Likud, Labour, Kadima, and all other parties interested in the fate of Pisralestine, is to find a way to work together towards a negotiated peace.
The Egyptian Prime Minister had this to say:
We have a political process in place and I think we have to look at the positive sides of things and how they will develop later. At least the Palestinians went into a political process, they've chosen a new Parliament, they will have a new Cabinet in place. I think it's important that whoever comes because of that political process in place will be able to represent the Palestinians and will be able to deal with the tough issues ahead of them, irrespective of where they come from.Thanks to the BBC World News for their thorough coverage of the election.
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