Global General

Palestinian elections delayed until further notice: PLO

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-12-15 18:59
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RAMALLAH: Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) decided to postpone the Palestinian presidential and parliamentary elections indefinitely after Hamas threatened to thwart polls in the Gaza Strip, an official said Tuesday.

"The national necessity and Palestinian interests require to delay the elections and enjoy flexibility in setting a new date to prevent the boosting of division between the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary general of the PLO's executive committee.

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The elections were due in January 2010, but Hamas, which won legislative polls in 2006, said it will not allow voting in the Gaza Strip before a full reconciliation deal is reached with President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party.

Fatah has been ruling in the West Bank since Hamas routed pro- Abbas forces and seized control of Gaza in 2007.

Abed Rabbo said that Israel did not respond to the Palestinian Central Elections Commission's request to work in the occupied East Jerusalem and open polling stations for the Palestinian population there.

He accused Israel and Hamas of sharing the same goal "in blocking the role of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in the Palestinian life."

"Israel wants to prevent elections in Jerusalem to say the city is not part of the Palestinian territories and Hamas wants to ban the polls in Gaza to thwart the reconciliation and to blackmail us, " Abed Rabbo added.

Hamas rejected to sign an Egyptian proposal for reconciliation and raised several demands and reservations but Cairo refused to amend its offer. Fatah had accepted the Egyptian initiative which delayed the elections to June 2010 to give Hamas and Fatah more time to reunite.

On Tuesday, the PLO's central council is meeting in Ramallah to discuss extending the term of Abbas as a president and also the term of the Hamas-dominated parliament to avoid constitutional vacuum.