Off the wire
• U.S. manufacturing activity accelerates in January  • S. African stocks rally on Wednesday  • UN concerned over Israeli announcements to advance settlement units in occupied West Bank  • U.S. manufacturing activity accelerates in January  • Moscow, Tokyo to discuss economic cooperation on disputed islands  • Laos to spend 50 mln USD to address poverty through 2019  • Over 500 cyclists expected to compete in Laos tournament  • Urgent: Dual citzens with EU passports not affected by U.S. travel ban: Mogherini  • Roundup: Kenyans forgo veges as prices double, pushing up inflation  • Ghana implements 2-month fishing ban  
You are here: 　 Home

Interview: Hamas will boycott elections until decade-long split ends: official

Xinhua, February 2, 2017 Adjust font size:

A senior Islamic Hamas official said earlier this week that his movement won't participate in the municipal elections in the Palestinian territories until the end of a decade-long internal split between Hamas and Fatah.

Salah al-Bardawil, a senior Hamas official in Gaza, made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Xinhua, in response to the Palestinian government's declaration of its decision to hold municipal elections in the Palestinian territories in May.

"The movement won't let any municipal elections be held in the Gaza Strip and will boycott it in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip," said al-Bardawil.

Hamas had agreed to join the municipal elections sheduled to be held in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in October last year.

However, a Palestinian court decided to postpone the elections because Hamas courts in Gaza deprived dozens of Fatah's candidates of their right to run for the elections.

On Tuesday, the Palestinian National Authority consensus government decided to hold the municipal elections in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on May 13.

Al-Bardawil said all these decisions were made "without coordination with Hamas movement and other factions."

The government's decisions "are violating the Palestinian law, and therefore, Hamas rejects these illegal measures," he said.

"The priority is for ending the internal division which began in 2007, and any elections held amid division won't succeed," the official noted.

Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007, after weeks of fighting with the security forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Since then, an internal Palestinian political and geographical division remains between the two sides despite a series of mediations from Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt.

The last municipal elections held in the West Bank without the Gaza Strip were in 2011, while the last elections held in both enclaves were in 2005. Endit