Dr. Hanna Nasser, Director of the Central Election Committee, told reporters at a press conference in the central West Bank city of Ramallah Thursday that the elections committee does not have the ability to conduct the general elections by January 2010.
Nasser said that the reason behind this decision was the refusal of Hamas to allow the Elections Committee to work in the Gaza Strip. He added that the Committee had told its decision to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to declare elections for January 24, 2010 after the Hamas movement refused last month to sign an Egyptian mediated document for National unity deal.
Hamas and the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party have been at odds since Hamas won the parliamentary elections on January 2006.
After several rounds of bloody infighting between the two largest Palestinian factions, Hamas controlled the Gaza Strip while Fatah controlled the West Bank.
The Hamas movement refused Abbas’s call for elections by January of 2010 and said it will boycott it adding that it will not allow it to happen in the Gaza Strip. The Movement announced that unity deal between Palestinian faction most take place before any kind of elections.
