Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:52:37 GMT

Hamas has accused acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas of "usurping power" after he announced presidential and legislative elections would be held in January.

The decree calling elections "has no value whatsoever from a constitutional point of view," Deputy Palestinian parliamentary speaker Ahmed Bahar told a news conference on Saturday, saying Abbas "must be tried for usurping power."

Abbas, whose term expired in early 2009, has announced that elections will be held on January 24, a move seen as illegal and unconstitutional by Hamas.

Abbas formerly announced that he would call for a parliamentary election in January should reconciliation efforts with the rival Hamas movement fail.

Hamas, however, said it would not accept a new poll in January unless a "package deal" is reached with Abbas's Fatah party.

The rival factions have so far failed to agree on how the composition of a unity government would be.

Hamas and Fatah have been at odds since Hamas came to power in the 2006 general elections. Differences between the two Palestinian factions reached its peak in June 2007 when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a bid to "foil a coup plot" by some Fatah elements.

Abbas in response sacked the Hamas government and set up a parallel cabinet in Ramallah.

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25/10/2009 Islamic resistance movement Hamas, and seven other Damascus-based Palestinian factions, slammed Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' decree on Saturday for holding Presidential elections next January as "illegal," accusing the United States of being behind the call which would deepen internal rift.

"The decision of holding elections is neither legal nor legislative and consolidates inter division … it is retraction of the deal reached in previous dialogues", a joint statement by the factions read.

"The U.S. and regional parties are behind this decision that serves neither people's interest nor national unity. Adopting individual decisions comes within the US-Zionist vision that aims to liquidate our people's rights," the statement said.

Abbas, whose term expired earlier this year, has announced that presidential and parliamentary elections will be held on 24 January across the Palestinian territories, including the rival Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

The statement warned against "individual steps that would damage the Palestinian national cause and meet the U.S.-Zionist dictations," underlining that "national reconciliation" was the only way to treat political arguments.

The four-year term of the Palestinian Legislative Council, or parliament, is due to expire in January 2010 at which time fresh elections must be held, according to the Palestinian constitution.

Mousa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas political bureau, said that "the elections which Abbas wants to hold next year would not take place in Gaza or anywhere else because there is no Palestinian reconciliation," warning the call was "unconstitutional and a fierce blow to national unity efforts."

Hamas has the power to prevent a credible election taking place on its territory, home to 1.5 million Palestinians. A vote without the full participation of Gaza could effectively create two rival Palestinian powers in separate territories. About 2.5 million Palestinians live in the occupied West Bank.

An opinion poll earlier this month showed Abbas losing popular support after a series of policy breakdowns over the stalled Middle East peace process and a U.N. report criticizing Israel for alleged war crimes in Gaza last January.

Earlier on Saturday, Hamas also accused Abbas of usurping power after he called presidential and legislative elections for January. Abbas "must be tried for usurping power," deputy Palestinian speaker Ahmed Bahar told a news conference in the Gaza Strip. The decree calling elections "has no value whatsoever from a constitutional point of view," he said.

In the last parliamentary elections in January 2006, Hamas won a sweeping victory over the previously dominant Fatah, something that upset Abbas’ camp, the Israeli, the Americans and some Europeans, and led to the blockade of Gaza.

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