Palestinian officials urge Abbas to delay election

By Wafa Amr

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian officials are
pressuring President Mahmoud Abbas to delay a January election
due to a split in his ruling Fatah faction that is
strengthening its Hamas rival, officials said on Saturday.

Lawmakers and senior members of Abbas’s Fatah faction fear
that violence may erupt if the rift within Fatah is not healed
before the January 25 election in which Fatah will be
challenged for the first time by the militant Islamic group
Hamas.

“I call for delaying the election because of the deadlock
in the peace process with the Israeli side and the state of
chaos which Fatah is responsible for and the recent rift within
Fatah,” said lawmaker and senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad.

He told Reuters that “Abbas must put his internal house in
order” before elections are held.

The split in Fatah, in which some of its most popular
younger leaders plan to run against the faction in the January
ballot, has strengthened Hamas. It won in three out of four
West Bank cities in the latest round of local elections on
Thursday.

Rafiq Husseini, Abbas’ chief of staff, said the Palestinian
president was determined to hold the election as scheduled.

“President Abbas has come under pressure for some time and
is under pressure now to delay the elections,” he said. “But he
keeps reiterating his determination to hold the vote on time.”

Hamas, eager to reap the benefits of the disarray in Fatah,
has demanded that the election be held on time.

Western and Arab diplomats said the January polls were a
critical test of Abbas’ performance as a leader and a sign of
his ability to convince Israel he was a peace partner.

HAMAS CHALLENGES FATAH

Several independent candidates said they had advised Abbas
to delay the election or face the prospect of anarchy and
violence on election day.

Last week, Palestinian gunmen from two rival groups within
Fatah engaged in a gun battle in the Gaza Strip after gunmen
took over the main Fatah headquarters in Gaza City to demand
jobs for Fatah militants.

Abbas was dealt a heavy blow earlier this week when young
guard Fatah leaders refused to accept Abbas’ choice of
candidates for parliament and formed their own list led by
jailed Fatah firebrand Marwan al-Barghouthi.

They believe their list will perform better against Hamas
as it excludes several members of the old guard who are tainted
with corruption.

Hamas has grown in popularity over its corruption-free
reputation, extensive charity network and its role in spear
heading suicide bombings and rocket attacks against Israel.

“Hamas’ victory is a shame for Fatah old guards who have
chosen some corrupt and incompetent candidates. If we allow
them to continue to run things this way, Fatah will also lose
in parliamentary elections,” a Gaza-based Fatah local leader
said.

Israel has said that if Hamas achieved political dominance
it would spell an end to all hopes for peace talks because the
group is sworn to destroying the Jewish state.

Abbas must walk a tightrope of restoring unity within Fatah
while complying with the United States’ demands to reign in
militants and stop militant rocket fire into Israel.

Abbas aides have visited Barghouthi in his prison cell to
negotiate a resolution to the crisis. Representatives from both
sides would meet on Saturday, Fatah officials said.

“The way out would be for president Abbas to declare that
the two lists would run and that both represent Fatah. He would
then call on Fatah members to vote for either one of the
lists,” said Qadoura Fares, a Fatah official on Barghouthi’s
list.