Poll delay will reinforce ‘Fatah-hamas rift’

GAZA CITY: Any change to the timetable for the first Palestinian elections in 15 years would deal a heavy blow to efforts to reconcile the rival administrations in Gaza and the West Bank, a top Hamas official warned.

The head of the Hamas list for next month’s vote, Khalil Al Hayya, said any postponement, however small, would undermine efforts to restore unity.

“A postponement would push the Palestinian people into the unknown, and I warn that this will complicate the situation, perpetuate and reinforce the division,” Hayya said in a interview.

“This would cause great frustration among the population and young people, and could lead to serious reactions,” said Hayya, the second most powerful Hamas leader in Gaza ater political chief Yahya Sinwar.

Hayya said Hamas does not seek to lead the next Palestinian government, but rather to participate in a unity administration.

“We want a government of national consensus,” he said.

“If it carries a reasonable and acceptable political programme, it can be a real opportunity to end the division, unify the institutions (and) end the (Israeli) blockade and Palestinian suffering.” Hayya said that while he would love to see Hamas retain the 40 per cent of the vote it won in 2006, he was realistic about the electoral costs of being a ruling party.

“Part of the Gaza Strip population was disappointed” by Hamas rule, which has seen three wars with Israel and no end in sight to its crippling blockade, he acknowledged.

On Monday, the electoral commission said most Palestinian voters in Arab East Jerusalem will be able to vote in the city’s West Bank suburbs.

However, the commission said it is still waiting for Israel to respond to its request to allow 6,300 Palestinians to vote in post offices in Arab East Jerusalem, an arrangement enshrined in the Oslo peace accords of the 1990s and followed in previous elections.

Hayya said Hamas strongly opposed the measures taken by Israel in Arab East Jerusalem and appealed for US and European support for free and fair elections.

“We warn against the obstruction of the elections by the occupation forces,” he said.

“This could lead some people toward other options such as extremism, violence and terrorism.” President Mahmoud Abbas’s party is expected to win the largest number of the 132 seats in parliament, although well short of a majority.

A large majority of voters -- 79 per cent according to a poll published by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre this week -- consider the elections important.