If you can’t beat’em in a fair fight – legislate ‘em out of electoral victory

Or at least that’s the suggestion from the famed champion of Palestinian democrat. Ynet News reports:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday he would decree a change in Palestinian electoral rules that might make it harder for Hamas Islamists to maintain the parliamentary majority they won last year.

However, pressed to say whether the early elections that he has promised would be held as soon as this year, Abbas said he could not set a date yet. Nor could he yet say whether he would run himself for re-election as president.

In an interview at his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah, Abbas said parliamentary and presidential elections must be held simultaneously in the West Bank and Gaza Strip - a condition that leaves the timing uncertain, given the opposition of Hamas leaders who seized control of Gaza from Abbas' forces in June.

Abbas said that, after he has met the Central Electoral Commission on Friday, he will not only issue decrees setting early elections but also decree that parliamentary polls be contested only by nationwide party lists, scrapping constituency seats which were crucial to Hamas' victory in January 2006. "We will amend the electoral law," the president said, adding that decrees could be issued as early as next week.

"I will use Article 43 of the Basic Law, which gives me the power to make those changes, to change the electoral law to a single national list instead of having two lists, one national and one by constituencies," he said. Under the existing rules, half the seats in parliament are allocated to parties according their share of the national vote and half are allocated to local constituencies.

Some constitutional experts question Abbas' right to appoint a new government and amend the constitution by decree following his dismissal of the Hamas-led government in the wake of the rift with Gaza. Some say he needs parliamentary approval. Abbas said he could issue the decrees on elections next week.

Voting is not scheduled until 2010 and some critics note that the Basic Law has no provision for calling early elections. Asked if he could say whether voting could take place as early as this year, Abbas said: "No I can't give any dates now." Asked whether voting could take place in the West Bank while leaving an election in Gaza aside or holding it over for later, he said: "We do not want to divide the homeland. "We are seeking elections in both the West Bank and Gaza. There can be no division according to the electoral law."

Well, ah, good luck with that.