MIDDLE EAST: Palestinians will hold a parliamentary election in January, President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday in a sign of efforts to meet international demands for reform as a condition for eventual statehood.
"I will issue a decree that parliamentary elections will be held next January. We will pick a day but it will be in January," he said in a speech to parliament in Gaza.
He announced the move two months after postponing a vote set for July 17th, saying he needed time to resolve a dispute over proposed reforms to the electoral law. Parliament enacted a voting reform bill soon afterwards.
The delay raised tension with the ascendant Islamist militant faction Hamas, which accused Mr Abbas of stalling for time to overhaul his troubled Fatah party in hopes of staving off heavy losses in the next general election.
Hamas said Mr Abbas violated a promise made to obtain the commitment of militant factions to his February ceasefire deal with Israel after 4½ years of Palestinian revolt in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza.
Senior Hamas leader Saeed Seyam, who attended the speech, said Hamas had called for the vote to be held this year. "We have reservations regarding the new date. We hope they will be really committed to it," Mr Seyam said. But he reaffirmed Hamas would take part in the election.
The moderate Mr Abbas is keen to bring Muslim militants into mainstream politics to give them a stake in peacemaking with Israel, although they remain sworn to destroying the Jewish state.
He has invited Hamas to join a unity government to help him control Gaza after Israel's pullout. But Hamas rebuffed him last month, saying they wanted a parliamentary election first in which they are likely to do well.
Fatah runs the Palestinian Authority but has been plagued by corruption, mismanagement and armed factions. Such failings translated to a series of Hamas victories in recent municipal voting, the Islamists' first participation in elections.
Fatah's faltering grip has raised fear of turmoil in Gaza after Israel's withdrawal of Jewish settlers from the occupied territory due to begin next week. Israel has ruled out embarking on a US-devised "road map" peace process toward a Palestinian state until Palestinian leaders subdue armed factions and impose law and order.
About 200 masked, armed members of a Fatah militant faction, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, rallied outside the parliament session demanding an end to what they described as attempts to arrest their members by Mr Abbas's security forces. - (Reuters)