An update of Palestinian voter rolls will start next week after months of delay and resistance from Hamas that exposed the mistrust between the main factions now sharing a unity government.
Palestinian officials and Western diplomats said the Central Elections Commission, an independent body whose members are appointed by President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, was unable to get permission from the Hamas-led government to use public school facilities to conduct the first full update as planned.
The commission's work and voter education drive will instead go forward in makeshift centres set up in private and UN-run schools and other alternative facilities not run by the Hamas-led government, officials said.
Abbas's long-running threat to call new elections faded after he agreed to form a unity government with Hamas last month. But the work of the Elections Commission, and increased US funding for political "party strengthening" programmes, has stoked suspicions within Hamas's ranks.
"This is the first time they are doing it. Why?" Education Minister Naser al-Shaer said of the Elections Commission, noting that updates were not conducted when Fatah was in power. An official on the Elections Commission, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Hamas government refused to cooperate in the effort because "they are scared that what's going on are preparations for new elections."
Revising the rolls could speed the process of holding elections if the unity government were to collapse. The Elections Commission and Western officials say the planned update was non-partisan and not connected to any future vote. Only a week old, the coalition government between Hamas and Fatah is already showing signs of internal strain. Factional fighting has flared up in the Gaza Strip and Abbas's appointment of one of Hamas's long-time foes, Mohammad Dahlan, as national security adviser, has stoked tensions.
It is unclear how long the unity government will last. Senior US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said prospects for holding early elections could be increased if non-Hamas ministers resigned en mass. Abbas could then rule by decree for up to one year until elections are held, they said. The United States has boosted democracy-building programmes in the Palestinian territories, to an estimated $42 million.
The State Department recently asked nongovernmental groups to submit proposals for "election assistance" and "political process and party strengthening" programmes, according to an email obtained by Reuters.
In addition to trying to bolster Fatah and other secular parties, Washington plans to provide grants to independent Palestinian news broadcasters with no ties to Hamas and tuition assistance to thousands of Palestinian students to enroll in private schools not controlled by the group, contractors say.
The Palestinian Elections Commission said there was no connection between US election activities and the update being conducted by the commission starting on March 28. The commission, which receives much of its funding from European donors, said voter lists should be updated annually. The last voter registration drive was conducted at the public schools in November 2005.
Political analyst and former Elections Commission official Ali Jarbawi said the commission should be ready regardless of when the next election would be. The commission's chief elections officer, Hisham Kuhail, said voter roll update "has nothing to do with an election operation... We'll do it this year, we'll do it next year, and we'll do it the year after that."
Kuhail said the commission explained this to the Hamas-led Education Ministry. But the commission never got a response. A Western diplomat working on the voter rolls said Hamas's stance would reduce turnout. "In their minds, elections are a threat," the diplomat said of Hamas. The Elections Commission had planned to open 1,070 centres in public schools in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, but instead will operate out of 574 private centres.