Hamas dominated PLC votes on the illegality of extending Abbas’ term beyond January 8

Monday October 06, 2008 23:19 by IMEMC News

The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), dominated by Hamas movement, held on Monday a session to discuss the legal dimensions of specifying term of office of the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas. The PLC decided that Abbas’ term should not be extended beyond January 8 of 2009.

Legislators of Abbas’ Fateh movement said that Abbas has the right to extend his mandate in office while Hamas considered this issue as illegal since the president was elected for four years.

The Hamas legislators said that after January 8 Abbas will no longer be regarded as the Palestinian president.

 The unanimously vote came to approve a report of the Legal Committee of the PLC which recommended that Abbas’ term should not be extended beyond January 8.

Legislator Mohammad Al Ghoul, head of the PLC’s legal committee said that Abbas’ term ends on January 8 of 2008 and called on Abbas to call for new presidential elections before this date. He added that the Palestinian law allows Abbas to run for president once again.

“If Abbas’ term in office ends before the Palestinians elect a new president, then the PLC will take over the president’s office for 60 days until a new president is elected”, Al Ghoul added, “There is no constitutional ground which allows extending the presidency without elections”.

Meanwhile, Abbas’ advisor for political affairs, Nimir Hammad, called on all Palestinian factionw, currently present in Cairo for internal dialogue, to enter serious talks which would end the current divisions.

He added that the Palestinians cannot hold legislative and presidential elections under the current conditions and said that ending the internal Palestinian crises come first.

Commenting in news which stated that Abbas intends to rerun for president, Hammad said that this issue is not currently on the table as Abbas’ aim now is the success of internal dialogue.

He also slammed the PLC session on Abbas’ term in office and said that all efforts should be focused on the success of internal dialogue.

Meanwhile, Hamas political bureau chief, Khalid Mashal, said that Hamas wants a comprehensive national dialogue in order to achieve reconciliation.

He added that Hamas places no preconditions on the dialogue and said that reconciliation starts by respecting the results of the previous and upcoming elections, respecting the Palestinian constitutions and rebuilding the security devices on professional and national basis.

He called for respecting the 2005 Cairo deal, the 2007 Mecca Deal and called for taking into consideration the Detainees Agreement of 2006.

Mashal added that the current peace talks between Abbas’ team and Israel cannot be serious unless Israel accepts four main basic principles; the Right of Return, full withdrawal from the Palestinian territories captured in 1967, the Palestinian right in East Jerusalem and dismantling all settlements.  

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