WEST BANK/ GAZA: Lawmakers in Gaza and West Bank fail to ratify Fayyad's government as political rift deepens

Fatah lawmakers boycott a session of the Palestinian parliament in order to avoid a confidence vote in Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's emergency cabinet. The majority of lawmakers are rival Hamas. Fatah lawmakers boycotted a parliamentary session convened by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Sunday (July 22) in the West Bank, denying Hamas the chance to vote against his caretaker government. Fayyad, who was appointed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah to head an emergency government after Islamist Hamas took over Gaza on mid-June, arrived at the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in the city of Ramallah to attend a session of a vote of confidence in his cabinet. But Fayyad faced an empty assembly hall, as a majority of lawmakers of Fatah and Hamas did not show up. "I have just found out that the session will not be held. I wanted to present my government to the legislative council in line with the law, but apparently the legislative council has failed to implement this constitutional duty," Fayyad told journalist as he was heading out of the assembly hall. Abbas's secular Fatah faction and Hamas Islamists, who seized control of the Gaza Strip in a bloody takeover last month, have taken turns boycotting each other's legislative sessions, preventing the body from gathering 67 members to form a quorum. Sunday's boycott was mounted by Fatah, which supports Fayyad. But Hamas lawmakers in the West Bank were absent as well, since Israel has arrested about half of the group's 74 legislators. Meanwhile in Gaza, Hamas lawmakers convened in the PLC building to attend the vote of confidence. Hamas won a majority of the seats in parliament in the January 2006 election. Hamas lawmaker Mahmoud al-Zahar said they had turned up to vote against the government "because it is illegal from the beginning". But he said the Fatah group of Abu Mazen, the other name used for President Mahmoud Abbas, had refused to attend, giving the impression the legislative council wasn't in a position to run properly. "It is a dirty political trick and it cannot be accepted" said al-Zahar. Abbas has seized on the parliament's inability to function as legal grounds for ruling by decree and installing Fayyad's government without lawmakers' approval after sacking Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and his cabinet last month. Hamas' acting parliamentary speaker, Ahmed Bahar, accused Abbas of violating the Palestinian Basic Law, which functions as a constitution, saying Haniyeh remained prime minister and that the law required Abbas to replace Fayyad within two weeks. "The government of appointed Prime Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad did not win the confidence of the legislative council, and its legal term has ended under 2003 law," Bahar told a news conference in Gaza City following the parliament session. The main authors of the Basic Law have said that Abbas had overstepped his authority and that he must obtain parliamentary approval to keep Fayyad's government in place. Citing the continued deadlock, Abbas plans to issue decrees this week calling for early parliamentary and presidential elections over objections from Hamas, which won parliamentary polls last year. Aides for the president said he has the power to issue decrees with the force of law while the Palestinian legislature is not in session. ENDS.

ITN Source | July 22, 2007

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