By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – The Hamas Interior Ministry released a statement on October 28, saying that it would not open polling stations for the national elections announced by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The statement said that Abbas did not have the authority to call such elections without a national agreement, and characterized the move as “illegal and unconstitutional.”

 

President Abbas had announced that Palestinian elections would be held on January 24, 2010, after Hamas party leadership refused to sign an Egyptian-mediated reconciliation agreement between Hamas and its rival party, Fatah, which governs the West Bank. Ehab Al-Ghsain, the Hamas interior ministry spokesperson, said that Gazan officials have been instructed not to cooperate with any Fatah efforts to stage the election.

 

“Any preparations, any committees, any collecting of names will be regarded as an illegal action that we will pursue,” said Al-Ghsain.

 

Ghsain also said that the Palestinian Central Election Commission, which currently has five offices in Gaza, is no longer authorized to operate in the Gaza Strip, since Hamas and Fatah had agreed during the Egyptian negotiations that a new election oversight body should be formed.

 

The relationship between Hamas and Fatah erupted into a feud after Hamas took a large share of the Gaza parliamentary seats after the January 2006 elections. The two parties formed a tense power-sharing government for approximately a year, but after fighting between the two parties in June 2007, Hamas took over Fatah-run buildings and military posts in Gaza to prevent what it perceived as “a coup by some elements inside Fatah security forces.” Hamas subsequently banned Fatah from Gaza.

 

Despite the tumultuous history, Salih Rafat, a senior official with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) expressed hope that Hamas would eventually decide to participate in the elections.

 

“The leadership [of the PLO] is now making calls to all the Arab countries to assume their role with Hamas to facilitate the holding of these elections,” Rafat told the AFP news agency.

 

For more information, please see:

 

International Middle East Media Center – This Week in Palestine – 30 October 2009

 

Al Jazeera – Hamas “Bans” January Polls in Gaza – 28 October 2009

 

BBC News – Hamas in Gaza Elections Warning – 28 October 2009

 

Press TV – Hamas Rejects Elections in Gaza – 28 October 2009

 

Radio France Internationale – Hamas to Ban Elections in Gaza – 28 October 2009