Calan blog

Palestinians to hold local polls on July 9

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The Palestinian cabinet decided on Tuesday to hold local elections on July 9, in what will be the first time the people have gone to the polls since 2006.

"The cabinet decided during its meeting today to hold local elections on Saturday 9 July and charged the electoral commission with making the necessary preparations for it," government spokesman Ghassan Khatib told AFP, reading from an official statement.

Local polls were originally set for July 17, 2010 but postponed after the Islamic Hamas movement, which rules Gaza, said it would not participate.

Hamas on Tuesday reiterated its refusal to participate in polls run by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, which is dominated by the rival Fatah movement, meaning the elections are likely to be limited to the West Bank.

"These elections are not valid because they are called for by the Palestinian Authority and the government and are devoid of legitimacy," spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP in Gaza City.

"We in Hamas will not participate in this farce and will not recognise the result of it."

The last time the Palestinians went to the polls was in 2006 for legislative elections, which Hamas won by a landslide.

Since January 2009, when Mahmud Abbas's four-year term as president expired, Hamas has refused to recognise the authority of his government. Abbas's term in office has been indefinitely extended pending new elections.

Last week, prime minister Salam Fayyad said local polls would be held "this year" and that it was time to start preparing for a general election, prompting another denunciation from Hamas.

Hamas says there can be no fresh vote without reconciliation with the rival Fatah party, which is headed by Abbas and dominates the Palestinian Authority.

The Gaza Strip and the West Bank are separated by Israeli territory and are ruled by rival administrations.

The Ramallah government had called a general election for January 2010 but backed down after Hamas refused to hold parallel polls in Gaza.

A year after winning the 2006 elections, Hamas ousted its Fatah rivals from the Gaza Strip following a week of bloody street battles, bringing to a head many years of bitter rivalry between the two movements.

Local elections were last held across the Palestinian territories in 2005.

Fayyad's announcement that the Palestinian Authority would start preparing for a general election was made as massive anti-government protests swept through Egypt, calling for the removal of President Hosni Mubarak.

An earlier wave of mass protests in Tunisia succeeded in forcing out president Zine El Abdine Ben Ali, sending shock waves across the Middle East and prompting a number of regional governments to make hasty changes in a bid to avoid a similar fate back home.