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The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, who is facing a growing challenge from Hamas to the legitimacy of his rule, threatened yesterday to call elections unless the Islamic militant group agreed to a reconciliation with his Fatah movement.
Hamas, which staged an armed takeover of Gaza in June last year, and Fatah, which controls the West Bank, were to hold talks this month in Cairo to try to resolve their differences. But Hamas decided not to take part, citing continued arrests of its followers by Abbas' security forces.
"We are determined that there be a continuation of the dialogue and will make every effort for it to succeed, but if not, there will be a presidential decree at the onset of next year for simultaneous presidential and legislative elections," Abbas told Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) committee members.
He did not set a polling date but said any decree would call for elections to be held according to a system of "total proportional representation", which would do away with the district contests that contributed to Hamas' shock victory in the 2006 elections.
Hamas rejected Abbas' proposal, a stance which in effect makes it impossible for balloting to be held in Gaza.
Hani al-Masri, the director of the Alternatives think-tank in Ramallah, said a new poll could make the Fatah-Hamas rivalry more bitter. "If elections are held without Hamas' agreement, we could end up with Fatah holding its own elections in the West Bank and Hamas holding its own elections in Gaza.
"Then the Palestinian division will reach the point of no return."
There are also doubts about whether Israel, which controls movement in the West Bank, would agree to polling.
Hamas has been boosted in its rivalry with Fatah by the impasse in Abbas' peace talks with Israel and the election of Barack Obama - Palestinian analysts believe he will be less hawkish towards Hamas' Syrian and Iranian allies than George W. Bush.
Abbas has failed to carry out reforms and empower young grassroots Fatah leaders to replace his older-generation PLO associates, so there is no surety he would defeat Hamas.
Hamas insists Abbas has no right to call elections or stay in office past January, four years after he won a presidential election.
It says that after that date, the legitimate president will be Ahmad Bahar, the Hamas Deputy Speaker from Gaza.
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