RAMALLAH: Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Wednesday said Palestinian elections should not be held without the participation of residents of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

“We cannot have elections without Gaza because we cannot have a Palestinian state without Gaza,” Erekat said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last month called for elections to be held on the constitutionally mandated date of Jan. 24 after Hamas refused to sign on to an Egypt-mediated reconciliation agreement. Hamas views the elections called by Abbas as unconstitutional because his presidential term officially ended in January 2009, and the group has vowed to take action against anyone trying to organize a vote in Gaza.

The Central Election Commission is currently studying how the vote could be carried out in both Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and will soon present its recommendations to Abbas.

“My suggestion, opinion and recommendation is that if you do elections in the West Bank in isolation from Gaza, that will be the total separation,” Erekat said.

Hamas — which won a landslide victory in the last parliamentary elections held in 2006 - seized power in Gaza in June 2007 after driving out forces loyal to Abbas and his secular Fatah party in a week of bloody street battles.