 Ahmed Qurei, who quit as Palestinian prime minister to stand in forthcoming elections, has blamed his subsequent decision not to run on Israel's threat to ban voting in east Jerusalem.
Qurie - who also unilaterally announced that he was back in the prime ministerial role that he had to renounce as a condition of standing - said he thought that the polls on 25 January should be postponed because of the Jerusalem issue. "It is the main issue. We must not go to elections without Jerusalem," he told a news conference. However, Qurie was earlier quoted as saying that he was pulling out of the race because he opposed a decision to merge two rival lists of candidates from the ruling Fatah movement.
| "Well... Yeah... That, too." |
The governing body of the ruling Fatah movement had on Thursday decided to merge the rival lists of candidates submitted by the old guard and the youth wing of the movement as a compromise formula. The decision to have a common list would require senior leaders, including Qurie, to contest district polls before they could be considered for the final list. As a veteran leader, Qurie had expected to be at the top of the list without running the whole gauntlet.
| He's much too important to The Movement for that... |
Also, a re-election is not guaranteed at the district level voting and party officials believe that Qurie, who was placed near the top of Fatah's original list of candidates, will have a difficult time winning his local district. |