The Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, on Thursday played down the Palestinian Central Elections Committee’s (CEC) announcement that it could not hold polls as scheduled in January 2010.
“The elections are impossible without national understanding and would not have succeeded and this is what the CEC has practically understood,” said Mahmoud Zahar, a member of Hamas politburo.
He told Xinhua over the phone that the CEC’s recommendation to put off the elections “was part of unveiled, unappreciated political maneuver.”
The CEC said it is unable to organize the polls which President Mahmoud Abbas has set on January 24, 2010, a date to hold presidential and parliamentary elections.
“We have informed the president that we can’t hold the elections on their scheduled time,” said Hanna Nasser, the CEC director.
In a press conference held in Ramallah, Nasser accused Islamic Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, of putting obstacles to prevent the elections from taking place.
“Hamas has rejected to receive the CEC in its official capacity in Gaza to prepare for holding the elections,” Nasser said.
Abbas’s call for elections came in a bid to end internal split and restore Palestinian unity after Hamas rejected an Egyptian proposal to settle the differences.
The political split in the Palestinian territories resulted after Hamas took over Gaza by force in 2007. Since then, Abbas has been based in the West Bank.
Hamas, which won the parliamentary elections in 2006, says it can not allow voting to take place unless the national and political unity is restored.