Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has postponed planned elections amid a dispute over voting in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem.
Critics also say President Abbas made the controversial announcement on Friday due to splits in the governing Fatah party.
It came in the form of a presidential decree in which the eighty-five-year-old Mr. Abbas shifted the parliamentary polls originally due on May 22 and the presidential election slated to hold on July 31, the official news agency WAFA said.
He laid the blame on the doorstep of Israel, saying the Jewish state, the occupying force on Palestinian land, has created uncertainty about whether the elections would be allowed to go ahead in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
“Facing this difficult situation, we decided to postpone,” Abbas said early on Friday after an impassioned address.
“Our people are excited for elections. There is enthusiasm… but what about Jerusalem? Where is Jerusalem?” he queried.
Mr. Abbas said the elections would be postponed “until the participation of our people in Jerusalem is guaranteed”.
However, opponents of the octogenarian Palestinian leader believe he has used the Jerusalem issue as an excuse to avoid elections that Fatah might well lose to its Islamist rivals Hamas, as it did in the last parliamentary ballot in 2006.
The delay sparked instant criticism from Mr. Abbas’s political opponents as well as would-be voters. Analysts note that no Palestinian under the age of thirty-four has participated in national elections.
They also say the postponement has vexed many Palestinians, particularly because it came on the very day that campaigning was due to begin. Preparations were already well under way, with thousands of new voters and three dozen party lists registered.
FRCN Abuja
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