Palestinian candidates drop out of parliament race

Sat Dec 31, 1:11 PM ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - About 20 Palestinian candidates have dropped out of the race for next month's parliamentary election to protest a threatened Israeli ban on voting in East Jerusalem, officials said on Saturday.

The group, mostly from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' mainstream Fatah faction, also said they withdrew from the polls to press their demands that Jerusalem residents should be better represented on the Fatah candidates list.

The move heightened growing concerns the January 25 election -- also threatened by increased internal unrest in the Gaza Strip -- could be delayed.

"About 20 of us have quit. We will submit our resignation to Fatah leadership," Hatem Abdel-Qader, a senior Fatah official in Jerusalem, told Reuters.

Abdel-Qader said that an Israeli threat to bar Palestinians in Jerusalem from voting would hurt the ballot's credibility.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in a 1967 Middle East War and annexed it as part of its capital in a move not recognized internationally. Palestinians want to make East Jerusalem capital of a state promised under a U.S.-backed peace road map.

Israel said earlier this month that it would not allow East Jerusalem residents to vote because the Islamic militant group Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, was taking part in the campaign.

But a senior Israeli official said last week that Israel was considering dropping the threatened ban. Israel had permitted Palestinians in the city to cast ballots in a presidential election held last January.

Palestinian officials have said they would not hold elections if Jerusalem was excluded.

Major-power mediators for the Middle East conflict urged Israel on Wednesday to work with the Palestinian Authority to ensure Palestinians in East Jerusalem can vote.

The withdrawal of the Fatah candidates could complicate efforts to put together a new slate in time for the balloting, and exacerbate feuding among rival factions.

Opinion polls predicting Hamas may win a substantial number of parliament seats have worried Israeli leaders who object to any dialogue with a group they denounce as a terrorist faction.

The balloting has also been threatened by increasing unrest and lawlessness in the Gaza Strip since Israel's withdrawal from the coastal zone in September.

The chaos was underscored by the kidnapping of three British citizens this week, who were released on Friday, and recurring gun battles involving police and various armed factions.

(Additional reporting by Wafa Amr and Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem)

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