Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will stay in office after his term ends in January 2009, his political adviser Nemer Hammad said on Tuesday.
Abbas' bitter rival, Hamas, vows to appoint Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) speaker as a temporary president for 60 days after Jan. 9 but Abbas says he can stay in office for an additional year.
"The basic Palestinian law says the presidential elections must be held together with the legislative elections" as the Hamas-dominated PLC expires in 2010, Hammad told the press.
Abbas counts on an amended law to let the presidential and the parliamentary elections take place in unison, but the new amendment was never ratified by the PLC or any other constitutional body.
Hammad also referred to Arab foreign ministers' decision during their meeting last month to support Abbas as a president even after his term ends.
Abbas' Fatah movement did not nominate any member to stand in presidential elections except Abbas, he stressed.
The differences of the president's post is shoved by a power struggle between Hamas and Fatah, started after Hamas won the parliamentary elections in 2006.
Last year, Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces and seized full control of the Gaza Strip while Abbas consolidated the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) rule in the West Bank. The two territories have turned into politically-separated entities since then.
Source: Xinhua
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