Hamas is going to assign a new office term for its political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal after the Palestinian Islamic movement completed its internal elections, sources said Tuesday.
The movement finished the polls in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the Israeli prisons, the sources said, adding that elections in Diaspora should end within days and then the name of the politburo chief would be announced.
The sources said that renewing a new office term for Mashaal, who has been staying in Qatar after abandoning his longtime base in Syria due to the unrest there, "is nearly certain."
Mousa Abu Marzouq, Mashaal's deputy, and Ismail Haneya, head of the Hamas authority in Gaza, got high votes in the elections and were competing with Mashaal to be named for the political bureau's presidency.
The voters secretly elect the Shura Council, the highest decision-making body in the movement. The council later appoints about 15 people to form the political bureau.
Earlier this year, Mashaal said he did not want to have a new term in office in harmony with Hamas' internal regulations, but the sources said the Shura Council wants Mashaal to continue in his post, most probably due to changes in the Middle East.
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