By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

JERUSALEM, Israel/West Bank – The Palestinian Central Election Commission has recommended that the national elections scheduled for January be delayed. The Commission said it has encountered problems in Gaza and in Jerusalem, and that elections would be “impossible.”

 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had called for national parliamentary elections to be held on January 24. Abbas added that he would not seek reelection for the presidency. Abbas’s office issued a statement after the Central Election Commission’s announcement on November 12, saying that Abbas would issue a decision about elections “in light of this development” and after consulting with Palestinian law experts.

 

There has been turmoil in the Palestinian political arena since Abbas called for elections. Hamas, the rival party to Abbas’s Fatah Party and the governing party in Gaza, said it would not participate in the scheduled elections, nor allow any Gaza residents to vote. Problems worsened when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he would not allow elections in East Jerusalem, even though the Oslo Peace Accords between the Israelis and Palestinians expressly stipulate that Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem are allowed to run in and vote in Palestinian elections.

 

The dispute over national elections is the latest in a series of power struggles between Hamas and Fatah. Hamas ousted Fatah from the Gaza Strip in 2007 after winning control of the Gaza legislature in 2006 elections. In October 2009, Egyptian-mediated talks aimed at a reconciliation agreement between the two parties stalled after Hamas and Fatah failed to reach agreement on key conditions. Spokesmen from both parties were quick to blame the other party for the delay of elections.

 

Ghassan Khatib, a Palestinian political analyst and director of the Palestinian government media center, was still hopeful for a compromise between the two parties. Khatib told the New York Times that the delay may provide an opportunity for reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, and that an election could be held within six months. The extra time may give the parties time to consider and sign the Egyptian-brokered reconciliation agreement, which calls for national elections in June 2010.

 

For more information, please see:

 

Al Jazeera – Palestinian Poll Delay Recommended – 13 November 2009

 

Ma’an News Agency – Hamas, Fatah Spar Over Elections Delay – 13 November 2009

 

Palestinian News Network – Fatah Official: Palestinian Elections Likely to Be Delayed – 13 November 2009

 

Christian Science Monitor – Palestinian Election Body Urges Vote Delay, Reflecting Political Disarray – 12 November 2009

 

New York Times – Palestinian Officials Push for Delay in Elections – 12 November 2009