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Aziz Duwaik. Wants to discuss reconciliation
Photo: AP

Palestinian parliament's term expires

Legislative Council in Ramallah, mainly consisting of Hamas representatives, will end its official term Sunday night. Fatah already declares it will consider body as illegal, whereas Hamas elements stress that current make-up will remain until new elections are held in Palestinian Authority. Efforts for internal reconciliation to be reinforced in coming days

The Palestinian Legislative Council's tenure will officially end Sunday night, four years after the elections which yielded a Hamas majority.

 

Fatah sources were quick to declare that from now on they will regard the current parliament make-up as illegal, while Hamas officials stressed that as long as no new general elections have been conducted in the Palestinian Authority, the body in Ramallah will continue fulfilling its duties.

  

This constitutes another stage in a series of constitutional crises befalling the PA after all reconciliation efforts between Hamas and Fatah have failed. Nevertheless, since the escalation of tensions between the two groups and Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, the Legislative Council has only convened several times.

 

Fatah members have been banning the body ever since. One third of its members are serving prison sentences in Israel following a series of arrests as a result of the abduction of Gilad Shalit.

 

Palestinian Parliament Speaker Aziz Duwaik stressed during a press conference that the current parliament will remain as the officially elected legislative council in the PA as long as there are no elections. He demanded that the PA convene the members for a meeting both in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip in order to discuss ways of reaching internal-Palestinian reconciliation.

 

Duwaik noted that according to the Palestinian basic law, the Legislative Council's role will end only after new members are elected and inducted, which has yet to occur.

 

Last December the PA faced a similar constitutional crisis with the decision to extend the term of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas until next June. Hamas continues to assert that the move was illegal.

 

Arab and Palestinian sources told Ynet that the efforts to bring about internal reconciliation based on the Egyptian initiative will be reinforced in the coming days, as well as the attempts to hold elections both for parliament and for the presidency.

 


פרסום ראשון: 01.24.10, 19:57
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