Palestinian election might be delayed

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- A Palestinian elections panel recommended Thursday that the presidential vote set for January be postponed.

The election commission did not recommend a new date for the election, currently scheduled for Jan. 24, the Los Angeles Times reported. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' term in office officially expired last January.

Last week, Abbas, 74, said he would not seek a new term. A spokesman for the president said he would make a decision on the election date when he returns from Jordan.

Efforts to heal the rift between the Fattah Party, which controls the West Bank, and Hamas, in power in Gaza, have been fruitless.

"We received an answer from Hamas that we are not welcome in Gaza," Hanna Nasser, who heads the election commission, said. "It is clear now that we cannot hold an election in Gaza."

Hamas has said it opposed the Jan. 24 election because the decision to hold it was made by Fattah.

Hamas won a parliamentary election about a year after Abbas became president but the party's takeover of Gaza effectively ended its government.

One possibility would be a vote on the West Bank only, the newspaper said.