Bahar Dismisses the New Fayyad Government as Unconstitutional, Ignoring Appeals for Vote of Confidence

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Fayyad appeals to Bahar to hold PLC vote of confidence for new 'caretaker' government

Date: 16 / 07 / 2007 Time: 13:01

Bethlehem - Ma'an -

Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the new Palestinian 'caretaker' government, has urged the acting speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Dr Ahmed Bahar, to call a special PLC session in order to conduct a vote of confidence for the new government, headed by Fayyad.

The caretaker government was installed to replace an emergency cabinet that stepped down after its mandate expired on Friday. The emergency cabinet was formed by President Abbas after Hamas took full control of the Gaza Strip in mid-June.

On Friday, Abbas appointed three new ministers and reappointed Salam Fayyad as prime minister after he formally resigned.

On Saturday, Bahar denounced this new 'caretaker' government. "This government, from the outset, is unconstitutional," Ahmed Bahar was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera International.

In a letter sent Monday 16 July, Fayyad appeals to Bahar, "in accordance with the first paragraph of item 66 of the 2003 law and its amendments, we are calling on you to hold a special session of the PLC to vote on the twelfth government."

Fayyad asked the PLC acting speaker to assign a date for this special session, within the institutional period, which is one week from the date of the letter.

The last two special sessions of the PLC have been suspended due to a lack of quorum needed to carry out any decisions (as many Palestinian elected members of parliament have been kidnapped by Israeli occupation forces and are still in Israeli occupation detention camps).

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