Hamas accuses Abbas of blocking local elections to protect Fatah
The Palestinian High Court of Justice has suspended the local elections slated for Oct. 8, citing concern that Jerusalem was left out of the electoral process and that Fatah lists were being disqualified by Hamas-run courts in the Gaza Strip.
A month out from the local elections scheduled for Oct. 8, the Palestinian High Court of Justice in Ramallah suspended the contest over the impossibility of holding the vote in East Jerusalem in addition to other procedural problems, including that courts in Gaza have been considering Hamas' complaints against the Fatah lists.
The local Palestinian elections were suspended after the Palestinian Central Election Committee received 163 objections to many of the electoral lists in the West Bank and Gaza. The committee rejected 158 of the appeals and took action on seven, banning those candidates from participation. The objections were mainly presented by Hamas to disqualify Fatah’s lists in the West Bank city of Tulkarm and four cities in the Gaza Strip — Beit Hanoun, Um al-Nasser, Zahra and Nuseirat.
