Fatah official: Hamas requested elections delay
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 24, 2011 - 12:00am

Fatah central committee member Mahmoud Al-Aloul on Tuesday said Hamas requested the postponement of local elections. In a statement, Al-Aloul said a delegation representing Hamas requested that the vote be postponed until reconciliation with Fatah was finalized. President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree on Monday postponing local West Bank elections, scheduled for Oct. 22, "until appropriate circumstances" exist. The October vote was planned to take place in the West Bank and the elections commission said Hamas had blocked efforts to organize elections in the Gaza Strip.

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Abbas postpones local elections in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 23, 2011 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree on Monday postponing local West Bank elections scheduled for October 22. The presidential decree postpones elections "until appropriate circumstances" exist, the statement said, and gives time "to provide the Central Elections Commission with the opportunity to continue preparations for holding elections in all Palestinian districts." The postponement will also provide the "appropriate environment" for efforts to end "division and reaching reconciliation and national unity," the decree said.

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Abbas-Dahlan spat undermining Fatah, bolstering Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - August 15, 2011 - 12:00am

As he prepares to submit a request to the UN in September for recognition of a Palestinian state, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has also found time to wage a relentless war against his former ally and friend, Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan. The rivalry between the two men, which reached its peak last month when Abbas ordered his security forces to raid Dahlan’s villa on the outskirts of Ramallah, has caused severe damage to Fatah and will only serve Hamas’s interests, Fatah officials warned.

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Hamas criticises Fatah over election plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet
by Nidal al-Mughrabi - August 14, 2011 - 12:00am

Hamas on Sunday accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement of violating a reconciliation agreement by opening voter registration for local elections due to be held in October in the occupied West Bank. Islamist Hamas, which seized the Gaza Strip in a 2007 civil war with Fatah, has described the planned ballot as illegitimate. Fatah is the dominant party in the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank.

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PA announces schedule for local elections in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 3, 2011 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Central Elections Committee on Tuesday announced its schedule for the upcoming local council vote, which will be held in the West Bank on October 22. The ministry said in a statement that registration would take place between August 13 - 17. A 10-day candidacy period would begin on September 6, the ministry added. The electoral campaign is scheduled for October 8 - 20, and results of the election will be announced 24 hours after voting closes, the statement added.

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Palestinian October elections 'only in the West Bank'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 28, 2011 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH (AFP) -- Palestinian local elections in October will only be held in the West Bank as Hamas is hampering preparations in Gaza, a senior electoral official said on Wednesday. Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, the official said the government had informed the Central Elections Commission (CEC) of a decision taken earlier on Wednesday. "The elections committee was informed today by the government that it had decided to hold municipal elections only in the West Bank on October 22," he said.

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PLO official: Local elections to take place in October
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 15, 2011 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian government in Ramallah is set to approve plans to hold municipal elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in October 2011. PLO executive committee member Ghassan Shaka told Ma'an Thursday that consultations about the elections were held during a recent PLO Committee meeting and October 22 is understood to be the prescribed date for the elections to take place. "We hope that the elections will be held in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in order to translate national reconciliation into real action on the ground," Shaka said.

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In Hebron's casbah, rocking the vote
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - July 12, 2011 - 12:00am

Starting Tuesday morning, Hebron's main street, Ein Sara, was intermittently closed. The traffic jams piled up to an unbearable level. Hundreds of people congregated at the entrance of the Al-Hussein School, waiting for the turn to go in. It was an election day. Across from the school, booths were set up in support of candidates and party lists. Trucks plastered with ads for the leading lists traveled back and forth and above the street, dozens of banners with photos of the top candidates were hung.

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Fatah 'tiptoeing round accord with Hamas' in run-up to statehood bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - July 5, 2011 - 12:00am

After signing a reconciliation accord two months ago but agreeing on little since, the widely hailed rapprochement between Hamas and Fatah now resembles little more than a shaky truce. The festering differences between the two Palestinian political factions have been manifested publicly in bickering over whether to appoint Salaam Fayyad as prime minister in the yet-to-be-formed interim government of technocrats.

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Fatah official says party ready for elections
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 18, 2011 - 12:00am

Fatah leader Muhammad Al-Madani said Wednesday that the party was ready for local, presidential and legislative elections whenever Palestinian factions agree to hold them. Al-Madani said in a statement that Fatah members met and discussed the elections and whether they are ready for this step. The members agreed on some essential points during their meeting, he said. The caretaker Palestinian Authority decided Tuesday to delay municipal elections until October 22. The elections had been planned for July, but were postponed on the recommendation of the Central Elections Committee.



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