PLO Backs Fresh Presidential & Parliamentary Elections

Via Middle East Times -

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) gave its approval Thursday for early presidential and parliamentary polls under new rules that will exclude the Islamists of Hamas.

The decision of the PLO central council, which has legislative powers when the organization's full 700-member parliament-in-exile is not in session, still has to be endorsed by Palestinian president and PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

But a senior Palestinian official said that the emergency cabinet sworn in by Abbas Sunday, after he dismissed the previous Hamas-led government as it seized power in Gaza, could begin preparations for the elections as early as next month.

The PLO central council recommended "the holding of fresh presidential and parliamentary elections once the necessary conditions have been put in place with a return to calm in Gaza," council member Saleh Raafat said.

The central council also recommended changes to the electoral law that would require all parties participating in elections to "respect the political program of the PLO," including its nearly 20-year-old support for a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict, which effectively excludes Hamas.