Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday said he will call for coincident presidential and parliamentary elections at the beginning of next year if no reconciliation was reached with rival Hamas movement.
"We are eager and interested in the dialogue (with Hamas) and we will spare no efforts to continue with it, but if it fails, I would have used everything," Abbas said, adding "then, there would be a decree launching legislative and presidential elections next year."
Hamas thwarted an Egyptian initiative to hold dialogue reconciling Hamas and Fatah this month, for the alleged clampdown by pro-Abbas forces against Hamas supporters in West Bank.
Abbas' remarks were made during a meeting of the Palestinian Liberation Organization's (PLO) Central Council in Ramallah.
On Saturday, Azzam al-Ahmad, a Fatah official, said that the council will discuss the potential response to Hamas if it announces the end of Abbas' presidential term in January 2009.
"The council will call on Hamas and every party to maintain the basic law and the electoral law," al-Ahmad said, referring to a proposed amendment that the presidential elections should be held together with the legislative elections when the term of the parliament ends in January 2010.
Hamas, which dominates the parliament, doesn't recognize the amended electoral law and insists that it will not recognize Abbas as the president after Jan. 9, 2009.
Moreover, Hamas says it will appoint the parliament speaker as the president.
The difference on Abbas' term is triggered by Hamas-Fatah feud that started after Hamas won the parliamentary elections in 2006. Last year, Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces and seized Gaza Strip, separating the enclave from Fatah-dominated West Bank.
Source: Xinhua
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