“We just boycotted the elections, but did not ask people not to vote. We could have publicly asked our people to do so,” Al-Zahhar said.

By Mustafa el-Sawwaf, Yasser Al Banna, IOL Correspondents

GAZA, January 10 (IslamOnline.net) – The position taken by the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas towards the Palestinian presidential elections contributed to the smooth success of the polls, a leading Hamas figure said.

“Hamas has worked to make the elections a success so as to make use of the experience in the coming (municipal) elections,” Mahmoud Al-Zahar told IslamOnline.net late Sunday, January 9.

PLO Executive Committee Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen, was formally declared the new Palestinian president Monday, January 10.

“Had we wanted to undermine Abu Mazen’s chances, we would have vied in the elections and secured a major portion of the votes,” Al-Zahar said.

“We just boycotted the elections, but did not ask people not to vote. We could have publicly asked our people to do so.”

Hamas said it was illegal to hold presidential elections under the umbrella of the Oslo Accords.

The Hamas leader further said that his movement did not support any of the six candidates who challenged Fatah's Abbas.

“We have thousands of reasons preventing us from supporting any of them. We did not meet any of them, to avoid sending a wrong message to the people to vote for him.”

Some reports have talked about Hamas secretly supporting Abbas's nearest rival Mustafa Barghuti, who won some 19.5 of the votes.

Mandate

Al-Zahar, meanwhile, rejected the notion that Abu Mazen’s victory means he was given a mandate from the Palestinian people on the issue of demilitarizing the Intifada.

“If Abu Mazen wants an authorization, he has to come up with a way to ask the Palestinian refugees around the world, not just those in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“He said it was only internal elections, so, it can not be considered an authorization from all Palestinians.”

The Hamas leader said the winner “is only a chairman of the Palestinian Authority. It is not a presidential election, but rather one to run the internal affairs of the PA.”

Immediately after the declaration of Abu Mazen's victory, calls poured in from Israel and the US to put an end to what both described as “terrorist” Palestinian groups.

The two allies insist on labeling the legitimate resistance of the Palestinian people against Israel's occupation as terrorism.

The issue of the military aspect of the Intifada has recently taken central stage with the majority of Palestinian experts and analysts believing the decision rests only with the people who bear the brunt of Israeli daily aggressions.

Replying to a question on Hamas's possible reaction in case Abu Mazen asked the resistance to lay down arms, Al-Zahar said, "the answer is simple; we'd ask him who would protect the Palestinians against Israeli practices? If he has an answer, we'll sure join him in whatever he does.”

Al-Zahar further added that the Palestinian people would be the first to oppose the idea of disarming resistance groups.

“Our arms are only used for resistance.”

Abu Mazen sees negotiations as the only means of dealing with the Israeli occupation, citing the impossibility of driving Israeli forces out of the occupied lands by force.

Political Participation

On the possibility of Hamas joining the coming Palestinian government, Al-Zahar did not rule it out, but he said it would all depend on the government’s agenda.

“Hamas is still contemplating the possibility of contesting in the coming legislative elections.”

Acting president Rawhi Fattuh announced Saturday, January 8, that parliamentary elections will be held in the Gaza Strip and West Bank in July.

Hamas’s longstanding position has always been the insistence on holding general elections across the occupied Palestinian territories, encompassing presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections.

On December 23, thousands of Palestinian voters flocked to polling stations across the West Bank, to cast their ballot in the first stage of a landmark municipal elections, the first in almost three decades.

Abu Mazen's Fatah won the elections with a slight margin over Hamas, proving the two remain the main players on the Palestinian arena.