Hamas rejects joining municipal elections before internal split ends

A senior Islamic Hamas official said Monday his movement refuses to participate in the municipal elections in the Palestinian territories before ending an internal Palestinian split that has been going on for around 10 years.

Salah al-Bardaweel, one of the senior Hamas officials in Gaza, made these remarks in a special interview with Xinhua in response to the Palestinian consensus government's declaration that it has decided to hold the municipal elections in the Palestinian territories on May.

"The movement won't let any municipal elections to be held in the Gaza Strip and will boycott it in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip," said al-Bardaweel, that his movement had violently seized control of the coastal enclave in 2007 after it routed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas security forces.

Hamas accepted to join the municipal elections that was due to be held for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in October last year. A Palestinian court decided to postpone it because Hamas courts in Gaza deprived dozens of Abbas Fatah Party's candidate to run in the municipal elections.

Al-Bardaweel said the reason his movement wont participate in the elections or allow holding it in Gaza "is because of the illegal measures and verdicts decided or made to set up a date for the elections and then postpon it and then decide a new date without coordination with Hamas movement and other factions."

Officials in the consensus government of Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah had earlier stated that the government is determined to decide a new date for holding the municipal elections on May 6. They said that the next Palestinian cabinet meeting is scheduled to make this date final.

Al-Bardaweel stressed that the measures of the consensus government "are violating the Palestinian law, and therefore, Hamas rejects these illegal measures," adding that "the priority is for ending the internal division which began in 2007, and any elections held amid division won't succeed."

The municipal elections were supposed to be held in the Palestinian territories to elect new municipal council members in 391 municipal council in the West Bank and 25 councils in the Gaza Strip. If the municipal elections were held in October, it was supposed to be the first that held in the Palestinian territories in ten years.

Although Hamas movement had forcibly seized control of the Gaza Strip, and routed Abbas security forces, it trades accusations with Abbas Fatah Party that it is behind 10 years of internal political and geographical division between the two parts of the Palestinian territories; the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Over the past 10 years, and in spite of Palestinian, Arab and international mediations, leaders of the two rivals; Hamas and Fatah, had so far failed to implement a series of deals and understandings signed in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt to end their internal feuds and split.

Meanwhile, al-Bardaweel told Xinhua that following the meetings held last week in Cairo between a senior Hamas delegation and senior officials in the Egyptian security intelligence, the movement is waiting to get positive results soon, mainly concerning the opening of Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

Asked about controlling the borderline area between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, al-Bardaweel said that Hamas has been always acting to control security on the borders and exert efforts to protect the national security of Egypt, adding that Hamas would never accept any attempts to violate Egypt's national security.

"In the last meetings held in Cairo, Hamas agreed with Egypt to keep in contact and continue future meetings and bilateral consultations," said al-Bardaweel, adding "no new dates had been set up for future meetings."

Ismail Haneya, deputy chief of Hamas, arrived in Gaza Friday through Rafah crossing with Egypt. Haneya has been away for more than four months staying in Qatar.

He has been holding talks for the last two days with senior security officials in Egypt on his movement's security cooperation with Egypt as well as the situation in Gaza. He told reporters on Friday that his talks in Qatar and Egypt were positive and fruitful.

"We agreed to keep in permanent contact to improve the situation in Gaza," Haneya told reporters at Rafah crossing point between Egypt and Gaza. The crossing is to open temporarily for four days on Saturday, according to Haneya. Endit