A shot in the foot

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/771/re1.htm

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has suspended the internal elections -- or primaries -- of his ruling Fatah Party after it became clear that the polls were fraught with widespread and serious acts of forgery, falsification and other fraudulent practices. A senior Fatah leader, Ahmed Al-Dik, told reporters in Ramallah on Tuesday that Abbas had ordered an immediate suspension of the entire election process throughout the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Al-Dik didn't give any details other than saying that Abbas, once back from the Euromed meeting in Barcelona, would preside over a meeting of top Fatah leaders, most likely the movement's Revolutionary Council, and decide what to do next. The decision followed cancellation of the primaries in Gaza on Monday after gunmen affiliated with Fatah stormed polling stations in several areas, forcing the termination of voting. The gunmen, who reportedly included members of the PA security forces, argued that their "intervention" was necessitated by rampant elections fraud.

snip

According to some Fatah insiders, Abbas might very well resort to "holding the stick at the middle"; appointing candidates in areas where the local Fatah leadership fails to succeed in "the test of democracy" while endorsing the candidacy of those elected in fraud-free elections. Regardless, the ongoing crisis within Fatah is bound to undermine the movement's image for at least some time to come as the ordinary Palestinian man and woman in the street will be prompted to wonder how Fatah could be entrusted to organise national elections, with Hamas as the main rival, when it couldn't honestly conduct limited internal elections.

To be sure, this question is legitimate and very timely. Moreover, Fatah would have to clean up its house and re-convince the Palestinian masses that what happened was an anomaly that will not be repeated on 25 January when the parliamentary elections are due to take place. Some among the more pessimistic pundits here even suggest that Abbas might postpone the elections for a second time. This may well, however, be a true recipe for political suicide.

That was the first thing I thought too! "Does Diebold have a Middle Eastern office?" My second thought: "where is Kathrine Harris?!"