Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has made an announcement of early elections. His call for elections has sparked off violence in the occupied territories. Hamas-led government has termed Mr. Abbas’s move as a coup.
Since Saturday, 10 people have been killed in clashes between Fatah and
Hamas after president Mahmud Abbas called for early elections.
Abbas said in his speech,”I have decided to call for presidential and parliamentary elections … The crisis is getting worse.”
His speech gives us the impression that he is disturbed by the crippling international sanctions and political deadloc.But Mr Abbas’ call for elections is a dangerous political move.
Mr Abbas does not have authority to order the new elections and he has referred the matter to the Palestinian election commission to see whether or not they can be held.
Critics say, this unconstitutional attempt to unseat, the Hamas-led government has been engineered by the United States and Israel.
According to report in the November 4 edition of the Economist, the US
is financing a “training camp” near the West Bank city of Jericho for the Palestinians’ Force 17, for new recruits for the presidential guard, as part of its plans for “security reform.” Israel has sanctioned the transfer of heavy weaponry from Jordan in the form of the Badr Brigade, a Jordanian-based division of the Palestinian Liberation Army, which operates largely under Jordanian command, and allowed Fatah’s militia, Tanzim, to rearm.
The Economist cites Abbas’s advisors as saying that these troops would provide the backbone of a force of tens of thousands to take on Hamas, whose own forces are said to number 5,700 in Gaza and 1,500 in the West Bank.
I think Abbas’ move to hold early elections has no constitutional support, but he may be right in his attempt to get out of the present impasse.
But this will not resolve the Palestinian crisis because there are genuine reasons to expect Hamas to come out with more seats in the new polls than it scored in the January elections.
Hamas got seats in the elections seats because of corruption in PLO.
