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Hamas talks local Gaza elections — in apparent push for general
Palestinian ballot
While PA leader Abbas is in Egypt attending regional summit, pressure
mounts throughout Palestinian territories to end his ‘culture of
decrees’ and hold elections
By GIANLUCA PACCHIANI
15 August 2023, 12:02 am 3
Hamas officials at a conference to discuss local elections in the Gaza
Strip on August 14, 2023. (via Shehabnews.com)
Hamas officials at a conference to discuss local elections in the Gaza
Strip on August 14, 2023. (via Shehabnews.com)
Hamas, the terror group ruling over the Gaza Strip, organized on Monday
a broad “consultative meeting” to discuss local elections in the
Palestinian enclave. The meeting was attended by dozens of political and
civil figures, to emphasize the importance of the step, according to the
Hamas-affiliated Shehab news website.

Hamas indicated it viewed the step as a prelude to holding general
elections throughout the Palestinian territories in Gaza and the West
Bank, as it has demanded repeatedly in the past years — most recently in
a reconciliation meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Egypt.

Zakaria Abu Muammar, head of Hamas’s National Relations Office, declared
at the meeting on Monday: “Hamas, with this inclusive meeting, is
looking to build a national consensus among the people and the factions
in the Gaza Strip to support local elections.

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“These elections will be an important and pivotal step to build towards
a larger national consensus, and consolidate the unity of the
Palestinian people and their lands,” he added.

Abu Muammar stressed that “local elections are a substitute for the
national ones that were canceled,” referencing the parliamentary
elections that Abbas called off in April 2021. “Ever since, we have been
in consultation with all factions, and reached an agreement [for local
elections] that reflects the general national position.”

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Hamas is aware that, according to polls, if elections were held at the
broader level today, its leader Ismail Haniyeh would likely win by a
large margin over Mahmoud Abbas, given the growing discontent with the
rule of the latter.

Akram Rajoub, who served until August 10, 2023 as Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas’s Jenin governor. (WAFA)
Abbas has slowly ceded to domestic and external pressures to increase
democratic participation within the PA and put an end to what one of his
former aides described as “a culture of decrees,” whereby Abbas makes
political decisions in the West Bank by autocratic ruling and without
popular consultation.

Last Thursday, Abbas ordered the removal of 12 of the 16 regional
governors in the West Bank and Gaza. The four governors fired in the
Gaza Strip only had a symbolic role, since the PA was violently booted
from the coastal enclave in 2007 by Hamas.

In the West Bank, however, Abbas ordered the removal of eight governors
– Jenin, Nablus, Qalqilya, Tulkarem, Bethlehem, Hebron, Tubas, and
Jericho. Akram Rjoub, the dismissed Jenin governor, said to The Times of
Israel that the governors were moved into retirement by the president in
a “completely natural decision within his competencies.” Rjoub also
hailed the announced elections in the Gaza Strip as a “positive
development” if candidates from Fatah are allowed to participate.

The dismissal of the governors was viewed by several observers with
skepticism and was largely seen as a populist decision. “It gives the
authority a new face, which is important, particularly as the governors
are in charge of security matters,” Palestinian political analyst Jehad
Harb said to Arabnews. “But it won’t change anything really. Abbas is
trying to rebuild some public trust, but it will take much more.”

Hassan Asfour, a former aide to Abbas and current editor of Palestinian
political site Amad, wrote in an editorial that the names of the
dismissed governors were unknown to most people, and so were their
accomplishments during their tenures — which were twice as long as they
should have been.

In order to avoid filling government positions with “people who don’t
understand their area of responsibility,” Asfour called to “overturn the
current central appointment system, and for direct elections for local
governors, similarly to many other countries.”

“Electing governors is more important to citizens than electing their
representatives in parliament, since the local governorates are the main
pillars for strengthening governance,” Asfour wrote.

This, in Asfour’s words, would be a way to establish direct
accountability and increase the personal responsibility of officials,
and would put an end to Abbas’s “culture of decrees” by nurturing a
“culture of elections.”

In a further potential move to curry popular demand, rumors were
published last week that Abbas was considering a possible government
reshuffle and the appointment of a new prime minister, to replace the
incumbent Muhammad Shtayyeh, for whom support had been dwindling.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas leads a meeting of
reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas in Egypt on July 30, 2023.
(WAFA)
These local developments have taken place while Abbas has been occupied
with broader regional issues away from home. Since Sunday, Abbas has
been in the coastal Egyptian city of El-Alamein, attending a tripartite
Egyptian-Jordanian-Palestinian summit. The meeting, which brings
together Abbas, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Jordanian
King Abdullah II, is officially intended to deal with various regional
issues.

Palestinian sources quoted by Haaretz claimed that the three leaders
will also seek to coordinate a response to the ongoing talks between the
United States and Saudi Arabia regarding a possible normalization deal
with Israel.

Abbas is reportedly trying to formulate a single message with the two
Middle East countries, to convey that any deal between Israel and Saudi
Arabia must involve significant steps toward the Palestinians, according
to Haaretz.

Abbas’s office also reported the possibility that a senior Saudi
official may participate in the summit, or that the meeting’s
conclusions may be submitted to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

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