JD: Looks like the EU is now calling for new Palestinian elections. The fact is there have not been elections for 12 years there should have been. Now the EU is putting on pressure to the Palestinians to go to elections. Give me a report.
JR: European Union is calling for Palestinian Authority elections which at one time had democratic elections. Now the situation there it’s a big power struggle between Fatah and Hamas. So even with democracy fully integrated it’s going to be those groups that are at the helm. It’s been very troublesome. I would imagine that this is sort of a democracy “where the votes are counted ahead of time”. But its very remarkable as you said Jimmy, the democratic body in the Palestinian Authority is a Palestinian Legislative council. And even though they were democratically elected they have not been in session since 2007. They basically just play a symbolic role. The terms of the office of its members expired in 2010 and even Abbas the leader his term expired in 2009. So it’s been not only democratic sham but it’s been just a refusal at this time. So the EU is calling for more democracy, which has been lacking which is ironic because the European Union itself is known for its democratic deficit. Again for Palestinian Authority it’s very difficult to say even if democracy was reinstated it’s just going to be voting between themselves and a step in some direction.
JD: John Rood with the details behind the call by the European Union for the Palestinian people to hold elections.
