Hamas and elections .. maneuver to respond to Abbas and renew legitimacy

Mervat Sadeq-Ramallah

It is not the first time that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called on his political rival Hamas to hold legislative elections, but to go to a presidential election.

On September 26, President Abbas announced to the UN General Assembly that he would call general elections in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. This came days after the initiative of the eight Palestinian factions, including factions in the PLO, to end the split agreed by Hamas, while Fatah considered it a "waste of time."

Analysts said at the time that Fatah and the president's call for new elections "wanted not to look isolated, but seek to appeal to the people and not to the factions."

But in an unexpected move, Hamas announced the readiness of President Ismail Haniyeh of the elections after his meeting with the President of the Central Election Commission Hanna Nasser last Monday. "We have no hesitation, concern or fear of entering a general and inclusive electoral process," Haniyeh told a news conference.

Positive statements accompanying marathon visits led by CEC Chairman Hanna Nasser continued between the PA in Ramallah, Hamas and the factions in Gaza. Hamas has agreed to hold elections in its first legislative and then presidential elections, followed by elections to the National Council, despite its demand for a simultaneous general election.

Hamas explains its acceptance of the need to face the challenges surrounding the Palestinian issue, the most important of which is the "deal of the century," and seeking to "correct the Palestinian political tracks," said its official in Gaza Yahya Sinwar.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told Al-Jazeera Net that Hamas is keen to arrange the Palestinian house, promote unity and start a new phase of meeting the challenges, and agreed to invest the president's call to translate its directions on the ground. He stressed that "the direction of Hamas for the elections is sincere and that it did not come as a result of international pressure."

According to Barhoum, President Abbas's agreement to hold legislative and presidential elections in a message conveyed by Hanna Nasser encouraged the factions to support them. However, this opinion is insufficient, and renewed his movement's call for "a national leadership meeting anywhere to discuss the chances of success of the elections and their requirements and entitlements and agree on the details of conducting them."

The call, which Mahmoud al-Aloul, vice president of Fatah, responded by saying that "these dialogues may lead to the emergence of controversial points hit the idea of ​​holding elections," and called for in-depth discussions after the President issued a decree setting the date of the elections.

Caution in the West Bank
While leaders in Gaza seem more positive about the elections, there is caution in seeing the street and leaders in the West Bank about the seriousness and motivation of the elections.

Nayef al-Rajoub, a Hamas lawmaker, told Al Jazeera Net that a presidential decree on the elections did not appear to be serious. He pointed to statements by the Fatah movement on the difficulty of holding elections in Jerusalem because of the reality of the occupation and in Gaza because of the control of Hamas. He added that "Fatah is in a dire state that does not allow it to go to the elections."

But Rajoub also talked about "a tragic situation facing Hamas in the West Bank in the light of political arrests, security constraints, silence of freedoms and the pursuit of opponents."

Why would Hamas agree to elections under this reality? "The president was not serious in his call for elections," admits Rajoub. "I think he threw the ball into the opposition court and bet that Hamas would reject it.

Rajoub said Hamas returned the ball to the president's court and asked him to issue a decree setting the date for the elections, which he ruled out. But he also believes that "fair elections, as happened in 2006, will not be repeated."

Nonetheless, he adds, "we cannot refuse to call the elections now, especially with the movement's demand for power for years to renew the legitimacy of the Palestinian regime, including the President, the Legislative Council and the National Council."

For his part, Hamas spokesman in the West Bank, Wasfi Qabha, said, "It is better for all factions to go to national reconciliation leading to the formation of a unity government that provides a democratic atmosphere for fair elections in which the election law and the mechanisms for conducting it are agreed."

Despite his assessment of Hamas's victory in the upcoming legislative elections in the West Bank, Qabha believes that holding the elections in a climate of division is "a recipe for internal fighting, especially with the presence of security chaos and the proliferation of weapons in the West Bank, and pushing Gaza to secede."

Qabha believes that Fatah is not ready for the elections, but wanted to maneuver and sprinkle ash in Laayoune because of its internal divisions, but collided with "pulling the rug out from under it through Hamas's approval of the legislative and presidential elections in stages."

At the same time, she criticized the positive statements about the elections and ignored "the pursuit of university students from the Palestinian Authority and the continuing sit-in of former prisoners to cut their salaries in the center of Ramallah," contrary to any democratic approach he believes.

It is estimated that security coordination in the West Bank and the rejection by the security services of any democratic process will set off elections, as well as the presence of mines as they are already in Jerusalem and provide international guarantees.

Palestinian writer and political analyst Talal Okal says that Hamas does not want to look like someone who disrupts the change in the Palestinian situation, although it is a definite winner in the upcoming elections, because it will return to renew its legitimacy in government. To govern without changing its control in Gaza and harming the weapons of resistance.

Okal believes that the orientation to hold elections in the current reality is not serious, and doubts the possibility of holding a national meeting to discuss the authority and conduct of the elections. He said that the atmosphere is not ready to accept this proposal as evidenced by the statements of the Fatah movement, which called for dialogue after the issuance of the President's decree regarding the elections.

According to Okal, both sides, Hamas and Fatah, are betting that the other party will fail the elections "in a political tactic that analyzes them from taking responsibility for their public refusal."