The ruling Fatah movement wrangled yesterday over whether to press ahead with voting in primaries, after gunmen disrupted elections in Gaza and activists complained of irregularities.
Some Fatah officials said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ordered voting suspended. However, others said the directive came from Fatah activists who opposed the primaries from the start and have little authority. Abbas was abroad and could not immediately be reached for any comment.
Fatah activists said they would not be deterred and go ahead with primaries as planned -- yesterday in Jerusalem and on Friday in the West Bank city of Hebron. Several other West Bank districts held primaries last week.
"I received nothing [from Abbas]," said Ahmed Ghneim, organizer of the Hebron vote. "We are preparing for the election in Hebron on Friday and nothing will stop us."
On Monday, Fatah canceled its Gaza primary after gunmen attacked polling stations, embarrassing Abbas, who has been unable to restore order in the coastal strip -- or even his own party -- as he faces a stiff electoral challenge from the Islamic militant group Hamas.
Democratic reform is considered crucial to removing the taint of corruption from Fatah, ahead of January parliamentary elections. Many young Fatah activists, long frozen out of power by entrenched party leaders, insisted that transparent primaries determine the party's legislative slate rather than secret back-room negotiations.
But disorder and violence upset the voting and then led to its cancellation.
At some of the roughly 190 Fatah polling stations, many voters found that their names were not on the registration lists or that they had been mistakenly registered at the wrong station. Fatah officials said it was their first experience holding a primary, and they only had a short amount of time to compile lists of the 200,000 eligible voters in Gaza.
Some militants lost patience.
In one station in a village in eastern Khan Younis, a group of about 15 Fatah gunmen, angry at not finding their names on the list, began shooting in the air, witnesses said. Officials then closed the station for about 45 minutes. Polling stations in the towns of Beit Hanoun and Deir el-Balah were also closed after similar incidents.
Fatah gunmen barged into a polling station in the Sheik Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, took its 16 ballot boxes into a yard, poured gasoline over several of them and set them on fire, witnesses said.
Fatah officials held an emergency meeting on Monday afternoon and decided to cancel the primary, nullifying the votes already cast, according to a statement from the party.
The primary would have to be rescheduled, possibly for Friday, Fatah spokesman Deab Allouh said, adding that the party's candidates would have to be chosen by Dec. 3. It was unclear how officials could ensure a new round of voting would be any smoother than Monday's.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
RSS