Abbas to dissolve the Legislative Council should national talks fail

Wednesday September 10, 2008 00:20 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News & Agencies

Palestinian sources reported on Tuesday that the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, intends to dissolve the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) should the anticipated Palestinian internal dialogue under Egyptian supervision and the support of the Arab League fail to achieve the expected results.

Palestinian President - Mahmoud Abbas

The sources added that the decision of Abbas will be supported by the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) since the PLO is the sole representative of the Palestinian People.

The Committee would extend the legitimacy of president Abbas for additional six months after his term as president ends in January of next year.

Also, the sources stated that Abbas decision came after serious talks with senior Palestinian officials and senior advisors, and that he informed them that he intends to dissolve the Legislative Council.

The officials advised Abbas to dissolve the PLC, which is dominated by Hamas, fearing that the acting PLC head, Ahmad Bahar, would take over the president’s position after Abbas’ term ends since the PLC head, Aziz Dweik , also from Hamas, is imprisoned by Israel.

The officials hinted that they obtained information which states that Hamas is not interested in the success of the internal dialogue which will be renewed next month under Egyptian supervision.

Abbas will end his term as president in January next year, and therefore, according to the basic Palestinian law, he should call for presidential elections three months before that date.

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