The elections would have been the first democratic exercise in the Palestinian territories in a decade.
Advertisement
He said Hamas has challenged all Fatah electoral lists with the election commission. At the time, Hamas seized the Gaza Strip, leaving the Western-backed Abbas with autonomous enclaves in the Israeli-controlled West Bank.
“The basis of the objection is against not including East Jerusalem in the call for elections and against the status of court houses in Gaza”, he said.
“The election can’t take place in Jerusalem and its neighbourhoods. Therefore, the court decides to stop the election (scheduled for October 8)”.
Palestinian media reported that Hamas has demanded the PA hold elections on the originally scheduled date.
Islamist movement Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, boycotted the last Palestinian municipal elections in 2012 but was due to participate this year.
Fatah blamed Hamas for the legal dispute.
Palestinian sources told Haaretz that the election process was seriously harmed when the Gaza courts, which are essentially Hamas-run, made a decision to annul the lists of candidates associated with Fatah in Gaza.
The CEC said the lists showed that 182 electoral lists have won by acclamation, 136 of which are affiliated to Fatah, 23 are independent, 1 list for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and 22 coalition party lists.
Al-Hooh told Xinhua that the court ordered the stop of elections “until it comes to a final decision regarding the motion presented to cancel elections”.
More than anything, the stand-off underscores just how divided Palestinian politics has become.
Advertisement
This year’s vote was planned with 81-year-old President Mahmoud Abbas under heavy political pressure as opinion polls suggested most Palestinians would like him to step down. While the Palestinian Authority, led by Fatah, has security forces working in urban areas of the West Bank, Gaza is entirely under the control of Hamas and its armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigade, which has fought several wars with Israel since 2006.
