An election crisis is brewing in Gaza as Fatah and Hamas, two rivals in the Palestinian municipal elections, launched verbal attacks against each other after part of the election results in the strip was declared invalid in mid-May.

The crisis was triggered after three Palestinian civil courts announced on May 19 to annul part of the election results in Rafah, al Bureij and Beit Lahya in the Gaza Strip after Fatah complained about irregularities.

The annulment drew immediate condemnation from Hamas, which initial results showed has won a majority of council seats in the densely-populated areas in the May 5 municipal elections.

Labelling the move as a burglary of Hamas victory, Hamas announced to boycott the re-run scheduled on June 1.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told a news conference in Gaza on Tuesday that Hamas' decision to boycott the re-run was made in response to Fatah's violation of election rules.

"Fatah continued to buy IDs of the Palestinians who have died or are out of the country," said Abu Zuhri.

He also accused Fatah of firing all employees in the local election committees in the three areas and replaced them with Fatah supporters.

He called on all Palestinians in the three areas to boycott the re-vote.

"Hamas was a winner in these areas, so we would not recognize the results of the re-vote," the spokesman said.

In an effort to defuse the deepening crisis, Fatah leaders said Tuesday that they accepted to postpone the re-run.

"Fatah movement is positively responding to the highest following up committee's request to postpone the local election re- vote," Abdallah al Ifranji, a senior Fatah leader, said Tuesday.

However, he insisted the legitimacy of the courts' decisions to annul the election results and criticized Hamas for undermining the national unity.

"We respect the Palestinian courts' decisions and we believe that any decision issued by these courts is issued by the Palestinian people's consensus," said al Ifranji.

"Hamas' decision to boycott the re-run is to hint that Fatah movement is the one which violated its commitments," al Ifranji said, adding "Fatah accepts the postponement because it believes that reinforcing the Palestinian national unity is more important than winning in a municipal council."

"We hope Hamas would change its position of boycotting the election and end these disputes by dialogue," he said.

With the two rival groups locked in trading accusations, tensions on the ground also mounted as sporadic clashes pitting their supporters emerged in the streets.

In response, Hamas has called on Egypt, which sponsored a national dialogue in Cairo in March, to interfere and mediate to end the crisis before any bloodshed occurred.

With a surging street popularity, Hamas put up a strong showing in the first and second stages of the municipal elections, and therefore, poses a major challenge to the ruling Fatah movement in the upcoming parliamentary elections due on July 17.

Hamas had been spearheading efforts to fight Israel during the over four years of uprising, but has largely abided by a de facto ceasefire agreement reached with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas at the Cairo Dialogue.

Source: Xinhua