Hamas will motivate its voters to participate in local election re-votes in four districts in the Palestinian territories, despite the group’s official boycott, sources close to the group said Tuesday.
The Palestinian Authority committee for local elections announced Tuesday morning that the re-votes will take place Wednesday as planned.
The re-votes are being held in the districts due to suspicions of election fraud in the original vote, which was held at the beginning of May.
Three of the districts in which a re-vote will be held are in the Gaza strip – Rafah, Beit Lahia, and Al-Bureij. The fourth is Saniria, a village close to Jenin in the northern West Bank.
Hamas still undecided about whether to join election repeat
Spokesman of Hamas in the Gaza Strip Sami Abu Zuhri said his movement still did not decide whether it will participate in the local elections repeat in some polling stations in the Gaza Strip.
He told a press conference in Gaza, "This will be decided based on the results of the meetings that will be held with Fatah."
He slammed reports that claim that Hamas has already decided on the issue describing it as "far away from the movement’s stance."
Hamas and Fatah held a meeting Sunday night in which they discussed details of the guarantees Hamas is asking for regarding the elections.
Abu Zuhri said delaying the election is also discussed hinting that there is a high chance for the repeat elections will not be held as slated to be held on Wednesday.
Abu Zuhri said the delay is part of the guarantees Hamas asked for, adding that another reason is that talks with Fatah did not end yet.
Hamas and Fatah agreed to hold series of meetings in bid to solve odds over several issues, including the local and parliamentarian election. This was decided after their meetings with a special Egyptian security delegation who came to the region for this purpose only during the last week.
