First Palestinian elections in 15 years are decreed by Abbas
GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP >> Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday decreed parliamentary and presidential elections for later this year in what would be the first vote of its kind since 2006, when the Islamic militant group Hamas won a landslide victory.
Elections would pose a major risk for Abbas’ Fatah party and also for Hamas, which welcomed the decree. Both have faced protests in recent years over their inability to reconcile with one another, advance Palestinian aspirations for statehood or meet the basic needs of those in the territories they govern.
Fatah and Hamas have been publicly calling for elections for more than a decade but have never been able to mend their rift or agree on a process for holding them, and despite Friday’s decree, it remained far from clear whether the voting would actually be held.
The 2006 election victory by Hamas, which is considered a terrorist group by Israel and Western countries, led to heavy international pressure being placed on the Palestinian Authority. Clashes between Fatah and Hamas raged for more than a year, culminating in Hamas’ 2007 takeover of the Gaza Strip, which it still controls despite a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade and three wars with Israel.
Abbas’ Palestinian Authority is confined to the occupied West Bank, where it administers major population centers according to agreements with Israel. The decree sets a timeline in which legislative elections would be held on May 22., followed by presidential elections on July 31 — the first since Abbas was elected to a fouryear term in 2005.