Palestinian deputies narrowly rejected a motion Thursday calling for a suspension of parliament until veteran leader Yasser Arafat follows through reform pledges with firm action. A motion filed by 13 MPs calling for an indefinite suspension until Arafat followed up his recent admission of mistakes by his Palestinian Authority with written commitments for reform was rejected by 24 votes to 23. The vote at the parliament in this West Bank city came after Arafat rebuffed a committee of MPs as they urged him to act on his pledge to correct errors which he acknowledged on Wednesday in a keynote speech to deputies.
Committee chairman Abbas Zaki, a member of Arafat's Fatah movement, said that the parliament had instead agreed to adjourn until Tuesday to allow for further discussions with Arafat. "Until Tuesday we will continue our discussions with Arafat when we will put our report to the PLC (parliament)," Zaki told AFP. "The speech yesterday had some positive positions about reforms and for that we will continue our discussions in a very deep way."
One of the MPs who proposed the suspension of parliament said it was a sign of frustration at foot-dragging by Arafat. "We tried in this session to postpone the work of the PLC as a protest against Arafat's refusal to sign any decisions after his speech yesterday," Jamal Shaati, head of the parliament's human rights committee, told AFP. The 75-year-old Arafat has been facing mounting calls for reform of his administration amid rampant corruption and a breakdown in security, illustrated last month by an unprecedented spate of kidnappings and arson attacks on government buildings. |