RAMALLAH, 1 September 2003 — The Palestinian Legislative Council has decided to postpone a vote of confidence in Premier Mahmoud Abbas and will instead convene on Thursday to discuss the government’s first 100 days in office, Palestinian officials said yesterday.
The original confidence vote had been scheduled for today. According to reports yesterday, the United States has exerted heavy pressure on PLC legislators not to vote against Abbas, but Minister of Information Nabil Amr said the government would not make any extra effort to survive a vote of confidence.
Speaking at a news conference here, Amr urged PLC members to study the 100 days report carefully before deciding on the future of the Abbas government. The government could not continue in office unless it received stronger backing than it had received to date and a clear delineation of its authorities and powers, he stressed.
The Palestinian parliamentary moves come against the backdrop of a deep rift between Abbas and President Yasser Arafat, which culminated in reports that Arafat was engineering the vote of confidence in his premier in order to topple him.
Amr, who together with PLC Speaker Ahmad Qurei has been mediating between the two men, admitted that “internal differences” existed between the president and the premier but said they were normal as each side tried to define its power and authority. He added that efforts were under way to find a solution to the differences before Abbas addressed the PLC later this week.
On Saturday Arafat loyalists in Gaza prevented an Abbas-nominated civil servant from replacing an Arafat appointee as head of the General Personnel Council, which oversees 70,000 civil servants. Arafat, bowing to international pressure to reform the Palestinian Authority, reluctantly appointed Abbas as premier in April but at the same time diluted his powers, especially as regards control over the various Palestinian security organizations. Abbas however has not succeeded in establishing his authority over his constituents and polls show Arafat is far more popular than he is. However, both Israel and the United States have repeatedly stated they will not deal with a Palestinian government headed by Arafat.
