Hamas will hold a second round of internal elections to choose a new leader for a transitional term ending next March, after results from the West Bank vote were contested despite early results appearing to favor Khalil Al-Hayya, sending the race back to “square one,” a senior movement source told Al Manassa.
“The result was not decided in the first round,” Hamas said in a Saturday statement, which provided no details on the rerun, as a successful appeal against the West Bank voting process annulled the initial results.
On Thursday, two senior Hamas sources revealed to Al Manassa that acting chief Khalil Al-Hayya had secured the central political bureau's chairmanship with 65% of the votes, defeating rival Khaled Meshaal.
This marks the second time the election’s outcome has been delayed. The process was suspended about a month ago due to appeals challenging the procedures taken by the Gaza Strip office to fill vacancies left by political bureau members whom Israel assassinated during the war.
Those initial appeals were ultimately rejected following a review process that lasted more than a month. Citing the highly complex security situation inside the Gaza Strip, the senior source explained on Sunday that voting is conducted through a secure, sequential circulating ballot system using sealed envelopes opened only by the supervising election committee, a process requiring meticulous security arrangements.
The elections aim to select four new members of the general political bureau to fill vacancies left by the assassinations of prominent leaders, including Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, Salah Al-Bardawil, and Saleh Al-Arouri, the former deputy head of the political bureau in the West Bank.
The internal elections come at a highly sensitive juncture, as Hamas faces mounting pressure from regional and international mediators to disarm and relinquish administrative control of the Gaza Strip. Under these proposals, governance would be handed over to the National Committee, a body established by the “Board of Peace” eight months ago that has so far been unable to initiate operations inside Gaza.
Last Thursday, Nickolay Mladenov, executive director of the “Board of Peace”, presented a new negotiating framework following meetings with the Israeli prime minister. The proposal contains a clause requiring the unconditional disarmament of Hamas, with Mladenov calling on the movement to accept and implement the terms immediately.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military continues to violate the ceasefire agreement brokered last October. Ongoing military attacks have killed 857 people and wounded 2,486 others, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.
