PA official: 90% chance elections are cancelled

PA official: 90% chance elections are cancelled

The PA has hinted at the possibility that the elections will be postponed if Israel does not allow them to be held in eastern Jerusalem.

A senior Palestinian Authority (PA) official told Kan 11 News on Wednesday that he believes there is a high probability that the Palestinian parliamentary elections, which are scheduled to take place in about a month, will be postponed.

“Currently, there is a 90% chance that the election will be postponed,” the source said. According to the report, PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas has not yet made a decision on whether to postpone the election, even after a series of discussions on the issue that took place this week in the Muqata in Ramallah.

The PA has in recent days hinted at the possibility that the elections will be postponed, if Israel does not allow them to be held in eastern Jerusalem as well.

The PA has continuously demanded that Israel permit Arabs residing in eastern Jerusalem to vote in the elections. In this regard, PA officials have been working in the international arena in an attempt to get Israel to agree to this demand.

The PA has in the past used Israel’s refusal to permit Jerusalem Arabs to vote as an excuse not to hold elections at all.

Kan 11 News reported that the pressure on Abbas to postponed the elections has increased in recent days. Among other things, Fatah officials fear the fact that the faction is divided as it heads towards the election, and Hamas as a result could gain a foothold in the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria, in a way that would adversely affect relations between the PA and Israel and the administration in Washington.