Ref: 33/2008

Date: 18 September  2008

News Release

On Monday, 22 September 2008, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) will organize a roundtable discussion on the debate over the presidential term. The roundtable discussion will be organized between 10:00 am and 12:30 in the Commodore Gaza Hotel at Gaza beach. It will be organized in response to the contradictory statements and positions of both Hamas and Fatah movements on the expiry date of the mandate of President Mahmoud Abbas and on that the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) will head the Palestinian National Authority if presidential elections were not organized before 9 January 2009.

PCHR had prepared a position paper on this debate that will be delivered before those who will attend the roundtable discussion. Invitations to attend this roundtable discussion had been sent to about 50 people, including members of the PLC, legal experts, academics, politicians, public figures and representatives of human rights organizations.