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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Hamas 'temporarily' suspends voter registration |
| 2012-07-03 |
| [Al Ahram] The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip said on Monday it has "temporarily" halted voter registration just over a month after granting the electoral commission permission to work. The decision was criticised in the West Bank, with Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmed saying that the Hamas decision "halts the reconciliation" between the rival Palestinian movements. File under "One man, one vote, one time." In a statement, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri ...a senior front man for Hamas. Zuhri gained notoriety in 2006 when he dropped his money belt containing somewhere between 640,000 and 900,000 euros, which was confiscated by Paleostinian security and customs officials at a routine border crossing from Egypt to Gazoo. The news brought competing Hamas and Fatah forces to the crossing checkpoint for an epic face-making and hollering contest... cited various "obstacles" that needed to be resolved before the electoral commission could resume its work. "Hamas and the government in Gaza have provided the Central Election Commission (CEC) with all the facilities required for it to carry out its role with ease," he said. "But there are many issues that represent obstacles," he said. "Therefore Hamas has decided to temporarily suspend the registration process until an agreement between the parties involved to remove the obstacles." The statement lists a variety of alleged obstacles, including the arrest of Hamas members in the West Bank and a failure to carry out registration in the Palestinian territories and abroad at the same time. It also says no agreement has been reached on dealing with the "large number" of unregistered Palestinian voters in the West Bank and Gaza who do not have identity cards. |
| Posted by:Fred |