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| Fatah officials: Abbas to announce prompt elections | ||
| 2009-10-23 | ||
| (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will issue a decree on Saturday announcing the Palestinian general elections, since Hamas has not announced a clear acceptance of an Egyptian compromise, a senior official of Abbas's Fatah party said on Thursday. "The decree will announce parliamentary and presidential elections," Mahmoud al-Aloul, a member of Fatah Central Committee, told Xinhua.
"Abbas's decision in this issue was made after Hamas refused to sign the Egyptian document, which Fatah has accepted," al-Aloul explained. Earlier, Fatah leaders have urged Abbas to hold the elections, due in January 2010 according to the law, if Hamas rejected the Egyptian proposal for Palestinian unity. In his recent visit to Egypt, Abbas "has informed (Egyptian) President Hosni Mubarak about his decision and the Egyptian leadership understood Abbas because the elections are constitutional affair that must be implemented," al-Aloul said. Elections are the best solution to end the schism after Hamas had thwarted the reconciliation efforts, al-Aloul added. Hamas, which won the parliamentary elections in 2006, argued that new polls cannot be held before the reconciliation is reached. The Islamic movement, which took control of Gaza by force in 2007,said it needs to modify and add or remove some points from the Egyptian proposal for Palestinian reconciliation. The proposal calls for delaying the elections to June 2010 to allow Hamas and Fatah restore political ties to their territories after more than two years of cut due to Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza. If Hamas rejected the elections, it will be unclear how the Gazans will be able to vote.
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| Posted by:Fred |