by Saud Abu Ramadan
GAZA/RAMALLAH, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in Ramallah on Saturday that he is committed to a Friday decree scheduling the general elections for Jan. 24 after Islamic Hamas movement failed to sign a unity pact drafted by Egypt.
Meanwhile, senior Hamas leader Ahmed Bahar, who is also deputy speaker of Hamas-dominated Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), said in Gaza that Abbas should face trial for usurping power after he called presidential and legislative elections for January.
In a speech to the Palestinian Central Council of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Abbas said his adherence to holding the elections on time was in response to the failure in achieving reconciliation "because Hamas is till refusing to sign the pact."
"There are no maneuvers behind issuing the decree to determine the election. We are implementing our constitutional merit, and I don't think that there will be someone would maneuver in the decree or implement it," said Abbas.
Abbas accused the Islamic Hamas movement, which seized control of the Gaza Strip by force in June 2007, of eluding from ending the current political split between Gaza and the West Bank.
Three weeks ago, Egypt presented a draft pact for internal reconciliation to Palestinian factions. Abbas' secular Fatah party has accepted it without reservation, while Hamas said it still has some modification on the draft.
Although Abbas late on Friday decreed legislative and presidential elections to be held in the Palestinian territories on Jan. 24, he said "we will not stop efforts to achieve national reconciliation."
The president said "we still adhere to national unity, end the current feuds and end the dark emirate in the Gaza Strip because we are working for the interests of our people."
Hamas has immediately rejected Abbas' decision to hold elections in January, arguing that the move blows up the efforts for reconciliation and deepens the current rift between the two sides.
Moreover, Abbas accused Hamas of always trying not to give any opportunity to the success of reconciliation by making pretexts and excuses.
"Hamas is not the decision maker of its own, Hamas can't make any decision because the decision is in the hands of other parties that give Hamas the orders what to do and what not to do," said Abbas.
He highlighted that Fatah and the PLO executive committee accepted the Egyptian drafted pact for reconciliation "because we didn't want to let Egypt down or not to achieve national reconciliation."
Following Hamas' delay to approve the Egyptian document, Cairo, which initially set Oct. 25 as the date for signing the unity deal, postponed the signing until a further notice.
Hamas hasn't responded yet to the Egyptian pact which calls on Palestinian factions, including rival Fatah and Hamas, to achieve reconciliation and go for general elections on June 28, 2010.
Meanwhile, Ahmed Bahar told a news conference in Gaza that his Islamic Hamas movement and the PLC reject the Abbas decree to hold elections on Jan. 24.
"Abbas does not have the constitutional eligibility for the issuance of the decree," said Bahar, adding that "The Constitutional mandate to Abbas is over and he does not have any legal status to determine the date of the elections, whether presidential or legislative."
Abbas was elected on Jan. 9, 2005, for a four-year term. The Palestinian National Authority extended his presidency by a year so that the next presidential and parliamentary elections could be held on the same date.
Bahar said Abbas should face judicial trail "on charge of usurping power of the president of the Palestinian National Authority and issuing a decree over determining the election date."
Abbas insisted that he had no other choice after Hamas refused to accept an Egyptian proposal for restoring Palestinian unity and then holding the elections no later than June 2010.
Talking about the stalled peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, Abbas said that bilateral U.S.-Palestinian contacts "didn't succeed so far in bridging the gaps over resuming the peace negotiations with Israel."
Abbas renewed his rejection to Israel's conditions on resuming the peace talks, which talk about establishing a Palestinian state "with temporary borders."
He said "the full cessation of all settlement activities in the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, in addition to setting up a reference for peace are our conditions to resume the peace talks."
"This is not only a Palestinian condition, but it is an Israeli commitment that was mentioned in the text of the Roadmap plan for peace in the Middle East," said Abbas.
Special Report: Palestine-Israel Conflicts
