Local Elections in July?

The Palestinian Authority meanwhile said Monday announced it would hold local elections in the West Bank and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on July 17. “The completion of this democratic process is one of the building blocks of the national authority’s program and the government’s plan to complete the building of the institutions of a state,” the government said in a statement. The last municipal elections were held in 2006 and saw Hamas win a majority in several large towns in both territories.

Hamas rejected the government’s decision. “The illegal government of Fayyad has no right to call for local municipal elections, said Gaza-based Hamas legislature Ismail Al-Ashqar in reference to the PA led by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

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Palestinian Factions Disagree to Agree

The latest disagreement between the leading Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fateh, is over whether the current parliament could continue even though its four-year mandate has expired.

The party's traded accusations, charging each other with undermining Palestinian democracy -- a phrase uttered less frequently these days as compared to four years ago. Their positions are rooted in competing legal claims. Hamas cited the Palestinian Basic Law, which they contend ends a parliament's mandate only when its new members are sworn-in. They asserted the current parliament, which has not convened fully since 2007, should stay in place until new elections are held.

Fateh argued that the Hamas-dominated chamber's four-year term had legally ended. Only President Mahmoud Abbas, Fateh's leader, can call for a parliamentary session, they argued.

To enforce its position, the Palestinian Authority's police forces arrested six Hamas-aligned staff members of the Palestinian Legislative Council's speaker Aziz Dweik, according to another PLC member. The alleged arrests followed a conference given by Dweik, who called on Mahmoud Abbas to support a meeting with all PLC members of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

It is clear the factions are as divided as they have been since Hamas won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections on January 25, 2006. They took 74 of the 132 seats, up-ending Fateh's historic dominance in Palestinian politics. A series of events and American and Israeli pressure, led to the current political rupture in which Hamas forcefully took control of Gaza and Fateh took over the West Bank.

Egyptian mediation has failed to reconcile the parties. They have been unable to agree on a date for new elections, with the latest date of June 28 on the table, giving way to this current disagreement.

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