Israel Matzav

Abu Bluff finds excuse to cancel elections

He hasn't done it yet, but just days after calling elections, 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen has started laying the groundwork to cancel them.

Presidential and legislative elections must be held simultaneously in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, President Mahmoud Abbas told reporters Thursday, saying it was "not acceptable to hold them in the West Bank only."

At a news conference alongside President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste Jose Ramos-Horta, Abbas said all efforts would be made to ensure that the vote could go forward by September in all of the Palestinian areas.

In January, the Palestinian Authority called municipal elections for July. When Hamas leaders in Gaza said they would not participate, the government enacted legislation making a vote in the West Bank only an alternative option. When presidential and legislative elections were called, Hamas officials maintained their refusal to participate, sparking fears of a national vote excluding Gaza.

JPost adds:

PA President Mahmoud Abbas' term officially expired in January 2009, a fact Hamas uses to deny his constitutional authority to call elections. Parliamentary elections were set to take place in January 2010, but were postponed after Hamas made clear that it would thwart them in the Gaza Strip, which has been under its political and military domination since June 2007.

Hamas has said that elections can only be held under "national accord,” under which the two sides agree to share control of Palestinian-ruled areas. It asserted that the timing of the announcement was a transparent attempt by the PA to cover its shame following the revelation of secret negotiation documents in which it "traded Jerusalem and the holy sites, sold the nation and conspired against the warriors."

But if there are no elections, the 'American-backed government of Abu Mazen and Salam Fayyad' automatically stays in charge. And if there's an agreement with Hamas (an unlikely event anyway given the current turmoil in Egypt which was the patron of such an agreement), they probably get cut off by the US anyway, because Hamas won't accept the quartet conditions to be a player at the table.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Abu Mazen, Fatah, Hamas, Palestinian elections 2011

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:36 PM