On the eve of the opening of the campaign for the first Palestinian legislative elections in fifteen years, the President of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas, has whistled the end of the game. The ballot, scheduled for May 22, is postponed until Greek calendars, with no alternative date. Suffice to say buried. Very upset, the raïs had left little doubt, Thursday, April 29 in the evening, before a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which endorsed his choice.
Mr. Abbas blames Israel, which refuses to decide to let the elections be held in the eastern part of Jerusalem, occupied and annexed after the 1967 war. The ballot is postponed “Until our people can exercise their democratic rights in Jerusalem”, concluded Mr. Abbas, blaming Washington and appearing to mock the Europeans for their lack of determination to put pressure on the Jewish state.
The raïs, aged 86 years, had announced this poll in January, in order to re-legitimize its authority. He had defended him ever since, despite pressure from those around him. But the process eventually got out of hand. “Mr. Abbas gives Israel a veto over Palestinian elections”, sighed, on Thursday, Mustafa Barghouti, independent candidate, who has worked for two years to bring together the enemy brothers of Fatah and Hamas to make these elections possible. Too bad.
A sham consensus
The meeting of 13 Palestinian factions on Thursday evening was held without Hamas. Given the lead in the polls, but without an absolute majority, the Islamists refused to play the game. “Fatah and the Palestinian President bear full responsibility for the decision, and its consequences, which represents nothing less than a coup against our agreement [de réconciliation] “, commented, Friday, the movement. Of those present, only three factions were able to muster enough supporters to present a list to voters. The others are nothing more than empty shells: they offer Mr. Abbas a mock consensus and maintain their prebends.
“It quickly became clear that this election was just a power-sharing agreement between Fatah and Hamas”, political scientist Nour Odeh, member of a dissident list of Fatah
For Mr. Barghouti, Mahmoud Abbas believed, for a time, in the viability of a united list of Fatah and Hamas, which would have erased any electoral surprise. “When this project collapsed, Abbas mourned the vote”, he believes. For others, it was Fatah’s internal divisions, brought to light with the formation of two dissenting lists, that sealed the deal.
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