By 3 PM, just over 40% of eligible voters had exercised their right to vote in the election for the Palestinian Authority's legislature in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. Hamas is expected to do well.
Senior Hamas official and candidate Mahmoud al-Zahar said, after casting his vote, that Hamas “will not change a single word in its covenant,” which calls for the destruction of Israel.
The assertion was a seeming contradiction to his statement two days earlier that the terrorist organization would consider third-party negotiations with Israel. “Negotiation is not taboo,” he told reporters on Monday, two days before the elections.
At the polls, Al-Zahar told reporters that Hamas “will go for arms and parliament and there is no contradiction between the two of them.” The candidate asserted that “Hamas will not turn into a political party,” and will continue its policy of “resistance.”
Top Hamas candidate Ismail Haniya was also forthright, saying bluntly that the terrorist organization “will not disarm after entering Parliament.”
Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, said the PA “partnership” with Israel would continue after the elections, even with members of Hamas participating in the legislature. “We are ready to negotiate,” he said after casting his ballot. “They [the Israelis] don’t have the right to choose their partner, but if they are seeking a Palestinian partner, this partner exists.”
The PA Prime Minister, Ahmed Qureia, sent mixed messages after voting in Abu Dis, a Jerusalem suburb. He said that Fatah would support Hamas if it wins the election, regardless of its stance. “I hope the minority accepts the decisions of the majority,” he said. If Hamas becomes the majority, he added, “We will stand behind them. This is democracy and we accept the results of the elections.”
Earlier in the day, both Hamas and Fatah were stopped from pressuring voters at the polls in eastern Jerusalem. Some 50 Fatah members refused to take down PA flags they carried, leading to a brief confrontation with police, who also confiscated Hamas elections propaganda in the same general area. Police arrested two Hamas activists who were distributing propaganda in the capital.