Abbas announces dates for presidential, parliamentary elections

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday evening issued a “presidential decree” setting dates for new presidential and parliamentary elections.

According to the decree, the parliamentary election will be held on May 22, while the presidential election will take place on July 31.

Elections for the PLO’s legislative body, the Palestine National Council, will be held at a later stage.

Abbas’s decree was issued after he met in Ramallah with Hanna Nasir, Chairman of the Palestinian Central Elections Committee.

Abbas instructed the committee and other PA bodies to start preparing for the upcoming elections.

The last presidential election was held on January 9, 2005, when Abbas was elected to succeed former PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.

In January 2006, the Palestinians held their last parliamentary election, which resulted in a Hamas victory.

Since then, the Palestinians have not been able to hold elections, mainly due to the ongoing dispute between Abbas’s Fatah faction and Hamas. The dispute reached its peak in 2007, when Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip.

In the past few years, Abbas has repeatedly promised to call for new elections, but stopped short of setting a date.

Abbas’s decision to call new general elections came after he recently announced that he has reached agreement with Hamas on the issue.

Hamas had initially insisted that the elections for the three Palestinian bodies take place simultaneously. Later, however, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh announced that his movement has agreed to holding the elections in three phases.

Hamas did not immediately comment on Abbas’s decree.

PA officials in Ramallah said that the leaders of several Palestinian factions, including Hamas, will be invited to Cairo soon for discussions on the planned elections.

The officials said that Abbas’s announcement was aimed at sending a message to the incoming administration of US President-elect Joe Biden that the PA was serious about implementing reforms and holding free elections.

Abbas, who last week entered his 17th year of his four-year-term, has come under pressure from the European Union and other international parties to hold the long overdue elections.

It was not clear on Friday night whether the 85-year-old Abbas would seek re-election.

Some of his senior advisers have said that they would like to see him run in the presidential election. Others, including senior Fatah officials, said that they would like to see new faces and younger candidates contest the vote.