Palestinian security warns Arafat against elections

The Palestinian security body asked Palestinian President Yasser Arafat not to permit municipal elections, expecting the triumph of the Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, and warning him against a repetition of Algeria's experience.

ArabicNews.com learned about a memorandum from the Palestinian security body to Arafat, which tackled a new strategy followed by Hamas of transforming itself into a political organization with government positions gained through the elections. The memorandum expressed security anxieties over the application of this strategy, and for its success.

The memorandum asked that measures be taken to prevent the domination of the movement over municipalities, and pointed out the possible repetition of the experience of municipalities in Algeria, where canceled elections in which Islamist groups had taken a commanding lead resulted in violence that is still ongoing six years later.