RAMALLAH, Dec 10: Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas steamed ahead on Sunday with plans to call early elections in a move the ruling Hamas movement has branded a coup against democracy.

His plan to call early parliamentary and presidential polls sets the stage for a showdown with the Islamist hardliners who have been in power for less than a year.

Amid escalating tensions between the rival factions, gunmen opened fire at the convoy of Palestinian interior minister and senior Hamas leader Said Siam who escaped unscathed, according to a ministry spokesman.

Aides of Abbas said the president was expected to formally announce his decision in a speech to the Palestinian people on Saturday, when he would also outline the legal underpinnings of his move.Palestinian basic law does not address the issue of early elections and Hamas has said the absence of such a provision prohibits holding early polls.

The current Hamas-dominated parliament is due to remain in office until the end of 2010.

“This is a clear violation of the Basic Law because the law explicitly states that parliament's term is four years,” Hamas lawmaker Mohammad Faraj al-Ghoul told a news conference in Gaza City.

Abbas's entourage, meanwhile, says an election can be held since there is no passage specifically prohibiting it.

“Abbas has the authority to declare any decision in his speech,” media adviser of Abbas, Nabil Amr, said at a news conference in Ramallah.

“No doubt that any choice like this decision will be difficult, but it is not more difficult than the situation that we are currently living,” he added.

Amr rejected Hamas charges that early elections amounted to a coup d'etat.

“This is not a coup and it is not a means of excluding anyone,” he said.

“Turning to the polling booths is not a coup.” The executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Saturday gave Abbas the green light to call early elections after Abbas said he had no other alternative after months-long unity government talks with the Islamist Hamas collapsed.

“There is no choice for me except turning to early elections,” a senior Palestinian official quoted Abbas as telling the meeting.

Hamas, which won a stunning upset in a parliamentary vote in January, called the decision an attempt to overthrow the democratically elected Palestinian government and vowed to fight the move.

Palestinian prime minister and Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, in Tehran during his first official trip abroad, blasted Abbas's plan, saying it would “increase the tension and have a negative impact.”—AFP