PLO central council approves early elections

Friday July 20, 2007 12:11 by R. P. - International Middle East Media Center - IMEMC Editorial Group

The central council of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) concluded a two-day meeting yesterday with a largely symbolic endorsement of President Mahmoud Abbas' plan to hold early elections.

The 115-member council also supported a proposed move to a proportional representation system where voters would select political parties rather than individual candidates. Hamas won the last elections in 2006 under the current regional voting system.

The PLO is the umbrella group for all Palestinian factions – except Hamas, which refused to join – on paper, though it is largely defunct in practice, making the move mostly symbolic.

Calling an election would be a risky move for Abbas; his popularity is low, as is that of the Fatah party, and there is no guarantee that he would win the presidency again. Fatah is widely viewed as corrupt by Palestinians and that negative image played a large part in its loss of last year's elections.

Abbas has not indicated when new elections would be held, and it remains unclear whether he is seriously intending to hold them. Some participants at the meeting saw the call for elections as a move aimed at forcing Hamas to withdraw from the Gaza Strip after its takeover of the area last month. "Our call for early elections is another means of pressure on Hamas to retract," stated Ahmed Majdalani, a member of a small PLO faction.

Hamas condemned the proposal, vowing to prevent any new election from taking place in Gaza. Holding early elections would almost certainly worsen the already tense relations between Hamas and Fatah.

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