A new Palestinian presidential decree restricts running for elections, Hamas criticizes

Sunday September 02, 2007 18:47 by Rami Almeghari - IMEMC & Agencies rami at imemc dot org

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued on Sunday a new decree that restricts running for elections as Hamas criticized the move as ‘illegal’.

The presidential decree presses for changes into the Palestinian legislative and presidential elections, involving respect of the charter of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the independence memo, as a perquisite for running for the elections.

It also stipulates that the President has the right to order holding legislative or presidential elections, three months before his term comes to an end.

The legislative elections system, according to the proposed law, will involve direct elections on basis of proportional representation ‘lists’, based on ‘unity’ of the Palestinian territories in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

As for the number of Palestinian legislative council members, it is 132, while the list representation should be made up of one party, a coalition of two parties or even more.

The decision has been criticized by the Hamas parliamentary bloc, which enjoys the majority of current legislative council’s seats, and the Islamist group considered it illegal.

Hamas had early called for reforming the PLO as a condition for joining it, demanding that it should enjoy majority of PLO’s seats, which are made up of the major Fatah and about nine other Palestinian factions.

Abbas’s decree comes as the Palestinian president, who is in top of the Palestinian Authority, called for holding early presidential and legislative elections, in the wake of Hamas’s takeover of the coastal region in mid June.

Hamas won the January 2006 legislative elections within the constituency representation system. The group continues to reject the past signed peace agreements, PLO had previously reached with Israel, an issue that has placed the movement under a crippling international boycott.

Bahar: Abbas's new electoral edict a coup against the constitution

[ 03/09/2007 - 10:24 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Dr. Ahmed Bahar, the acting speaker of the PLC described the edict issued by PA chief Mahmoud Abbas, which aims to bar Hamas from participating in the elections, as "illegal and a coup against the constitution."

The edict stipulates that any candidate for elections must recognize the PLO as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, abide by the declaration of independence document and the provisions of the basic law, and respect the agreements signed with Israel. It finally stipulated that the elections must be conducted in accordance with the system of proportional lists.

For his part, Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, confirmed Hamas's rejection of the electoral edict, adding, "The PA chief cannot hold elections without the consent of the political forces and the PLC. And since he is unable to win such a consent; therefore, Abbas's edict is unacceptable and illegal."

In a press release published on Monday, Dr. Mohamed Al-Madhoun, the head of the caretaker government's bureau, described Abbas's edict on the adoption of the proportional representation code in the presidential and legislative elections, as "partial and political in order to overthrow the results of the last elections by developing non-objective and inaccurate conditions for the elections.

Madhoun further charged that Abbas's edicts constituted a legal massacre, because he caused irregularities in the legislative process and the Palestinian basic law, and 90% of his edicts contravened the basic law, its executive statute and the rules governing the relationship with the PA.

In response to queries whether Abbas's edict was based on articles of the basic law, he replied: "Before Abbas resorted to the law he resorted to the state of emergency, which is virtually nonexistent so far because he did not deal with the state of emergency according to the law, where Haneyya's government is the one which is responsible for enforcing the state of emergency."

For his part, Dr. Abdulsattar Qassem, a professor of political science at the Najah university stated in a press statement to the Palestine newspaper that the elections under Abbas's conditions are the election of one faction and do not represent the entire Palestinian people.

"The principle of elections is based on the multiplicity of programs and viewpoints and not confined to one program based on the vision of one party or one faction," Dr. Qassem added, pointing out that if the elections were held, it would be for Fatah faction only and would not represent the Palestinian people.

In response to a question whether the edict would turn the balance of power in the Palestinian arena in favor of Fatah, he affirmed that the edict will be detrimental only to Fatah because it will lose the majority of Palestinian people.

***

Note to Translators:

The Arabic definite article, Al (or its variant, El) should be written with a hyphen separating it from the noun it is associated with, for example Al-Aqsa. If a hyphen is not used, as in Al Aqsa, it confuses non-Arabic readers. They may think that it is an abbreviation of the name Albert, as many Americans do.

The Arabic definite article Al (or El) should be written as such, whether it is Shamsiyah or Qamariyah in pronunciation, simply because we are dealing with the written form of the language, not the spoken one. Using the Shamsiyah so many forms in writing is inaccurate and confusing to non-Arabic readers, to say the least.

Only standard (fasih) pronunciation of Arabic names should be used. Non-standard ('ammi) should be avoided avoided. Example: Names like Abu Sunainah, Abu Rudainah, and Abu Shebak are written by some translators in the non-standard forms of Abu Snainah, Abu Rdainah, and Abu Shbak.

The standard pronunciation of the vowel at the end of names is (a), not (e), particularly if it is followed by (h), like in the cases of Haniyah and Rudainah, not Haniyeh and Rudaineh.

The standard pronunciation of vowels in the following names is (ai), not (ei) as written by some translators: Hussain, not Hussein and Hassanain, not Hassanein. This is the same long vowel pronounced in the English words "rain" and "brain."

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