Hamas: Legislative Council to stay until elections

Islamic Hamas movement on Tuesday said the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) will remain functioning until new elections are held.

"The council will continue carrying out its legal and constitutional authorities and duties until a new council is elected and the new members are sworn in," said Ahmad Bahar, the deputy speaker of the Hamas-dominated parliament.

Bahar remarks were made in response to President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party which tries to replace the PLC with the Palestinian Central Council (PCC), the consultative and legislative body of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The move is part of Hamas-Fatah power struggle that did not end when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007.

Hamas dominates the PLC after it had won parliamentary elections in 2006. However, Hamas is not represented under the PLO and so it has no word in the PCC.

In a press conference held in Gaza city, Bahar said that his legislative council "can't be put under the mandate of any side and the councils that have lost its legitimacy for a long time cannot decide on the PLC."

Bahar considered the attempts to move the PLC's authorities to the PCC as "piracy that would fail for sure." Allegations that the PCC can "derive the PLC's authorities are violations of the basic law."

Tensions between Abbas, who is based in the West Bank, and Hamas has gone high after the Islamic movement refused to sign an Egyptian initiative to restore political ties to the Palestinian territories and reunite the rivals.