Parties worried about cancelation of Palestinian elex

A Palestinian election candidate expressed concern Tuesday at reports that the Palestinian Authority plans to call off elections due to take place next month.

Nour Odeh, who's standing for the Horriyeh (Freedom) list, said postponing the vote would be tantamount to cancelling it.

Egyptian officials said that the PA plans to cancel the elections - the first for 15 years - citing Israel's refusal to allow voting in east Jerusalem.

The decision would effectively grant Israel a veto over the holding of elections, though President Mahmoud Abbas could also benefit from the cancelling a vote in which his fractured Fatah party is expected to lose power and influence to the Islamic militant group Hamas.

The officials said Egypt is in talks with Israel to reach a compromise to allow the vote, but those efforts have so far failed.

"We are extremely concerned, and we invited and called on other lists to join forces to protect the rights of all Palestinian voters to participate in this election and to choose their representatives," said Odeh.

The Palestinian Election Commission says 6,000 voters in east Jerusalem would need to submit their ballots through Israeli post offices in accordance with past agreements while the other 150,000 could vote with or without Israeli permission.

The small number of voters who require Israeli permission are unlikely to have a decisive impact on the vote, but their participation is seen as symbolically important for maintaining Palestinian claims to east Jerusalem.

Israel has not said whether it will allow them to vote.

They also provide a pretext for Abbas to cancel a parliamentary election that his Fatah movement is expected to lose badly.

Fatah has split into three rival lists, paving the way for Hamas to emerge as the biggest party in parliament.

Israel and the international community, which view Hamas as a terrorist group, would also quietly welcome delaying or cancelling the vote.

Hamas' landslide victory in the 2006 parliamentary elections sparked a crisis that culminated with the militant group seizing Gaza from Abbas' forces and confining his authority to parts of the occupied West Bank.