BICOM

The Palestinian Authority (PA) yesterday announced that Palestinian municipal elections will be postponed for several months.

The delay comes after the PA High Court ruled on Monday that the municipal elections, which were set to take place this week in 416 Palestinian towns and cities across the West Bank and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, could only be held in the West Bank.

The Court said that the judiciary in Gaza did not provide necessary “guarantees” to hold such a vote. Several weeks ago, the court froze the election process, owing to serious irregularities, primarily the removal of candidates associated with Fatah from the electoral list in Gaza.

PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said: “The Palestinian government decided, in coordination with President Mahmoud Abbas, to hold the municipal elections within four months to guarantee the necessary legal circumstances.”

The PA’s Central Election Committee had recommended that the vote be delayed by six months in order to find a workable solution which would allow the election to take place in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the delay shows that the Fatah faction of PA President Abbas “wants to evade the election results, all in the sole partisan interests of Fatah”.

In July Hamas  agreed to field a list of candidates in the municipal elections. The postponed election would have been the first time that Hamas and Fatah contest an election since 2006, when Hamas won a majority in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections. A year later, Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah and relations between the two have been bitter ever since. Reconciliation and unity agreements between the two factions have been agreed but never fully implemented and the two have not shared power.