Hamas vows to bar elections in Gaza

by Saud Abu Ramadan

Islamic Hamas movement vowed on Wednesday to prevent the organization of Palestinian elections in the Gaza Strip, in response to President Mahmoud Abbas' insistence on holding them on Jan. 24, 2010.

The Interior Ministry of the deposed Hamas government in Gaza said that the ministry would prevent the elections in Gaza, whether presidential or legislative, and also bar the Central Elections Committee (CEC), which has five offices in Gaza, from acting.

The Interior Ministry rejects the elections because "they were declared by a figure who doesn't have the right to declare and because they were planned to be held without reaching reconciliation," it said in a statement.

The ministry vowed to hold responsible anyone who are involved in the preparation for the elections in Gaza.

On Friday, Abbas issued a decree calling on the Palestinians in Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem to go to the ballots on Jan. 24,2010. He also sent a letter to CEC chief Hana Nasser asking him to prepare for holding the elections on schedule.

Hamas considered Abbas' decree as a strike to the Egyptian efforts aimed at brokering a reconciliation deal among rival Palestinians.

It argued that Abbas does not have the authority to issue such a decree, adding that the decree would deepen the current split between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Abbas was elected on Jan. 9, 2005, for a four-year term. The Palestinian National Authority extended his presidency by a year so that the next presidential and parliamentary elections could beheld on the same date.

Hamas, which defeated Abbas's secular Fatah faction in the latest parliamentary elections in January 2006, consistently rejected the extension.

The rift between Hamas and Fatah boiled over in June 2007 when Hamas ousted the Fatah-dominated security forces from Gaza in a week of infighting.

Meanwhile, Yahia Musa, a Gaza-based Hamas lawmaker, told Xinhuain a telephone interview that his movement will not allow the CEC members to work freely in the Gaza Strip to prepare for holding the elections.

On Wednesday, the CEC called all its members in the Palestinian territories to start work on preparation for the elections. The CEC announced earlier this week that it is ready to operate on the order of Abbas to hold the elections in January.

Hamas insists that an inter-reconciliation agreement should be reached before fixing the date for the elections. Hamas has not yet responded to an Egyptian-drafted reconciliation pact, which calls for holding the elections in June 2010, though Fatah has signed the accord.

Musa said "Abbas' decree of setting Jan. 24 for holding the general elections without reaching a national reconciliation agreement is practically useless, illegal and is not constitutional, so everything comes after the issuance of the decree is useless."

"Hamas movement will continue struggling with other Palestinian powers to prevent holding the elections in the Palestinian territories before reaching a national accordance agreement," said Musa.

Palestinian observers ruled out the possibility that the general elections will be held in the Palestinian territories on Jan. 24 without having it held in the Gaza Strip.

They said that the CEC might inform Abbas that holding the elections without the Gaza Strip will be impossible.

Mekhemer Abu Se'da, a political science teacher at the Gaza-based al-Azhar University, said "holding the elections only in the West Bank would force Hamas to boycott the elections and call for parallel elections in the Gaza Strip."

"This would manifest a real status of split among the Palestinians," he said.

Source: Xinhua