Quds city, April 16, SPA -- Signs mounted Saturday that the Palestinian Authority might delay parliamentary elections until after Israel's Gaza Strip pullout. The parliamentary elections were scheduled to take place on July 17. Information Minister Nabil Shaath said "nobody has decided to postpone" the vote. But the election's proximity to Israel's late-July launch of its evacuation of 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank could become an issue, Shaath added. "The question really has to do with the Israeli pullout of Gaza during that time, and our fear that the Israelis might make it difficult for people to do real election campaigns and have real freedom of movement," he said. "This is really the only consideration," he said. "And this consideration will be discussed with Hamas and with everybody."
