Palestine to Hold Election on May 22

Ramallah, MINA – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Friday local time, the Palestinian Authority (PA) will hold legislative elections on May 22, while the presidential vote on July 31

Abbas said elections would last at least the end of this year in a bid to resolve long-running internal divisions.

“The president instructed the electoral committee and all state officials to launch a democratic electoral process in all cities in the country,” said the decree referring to the occupied West Bank, Gaza and occupied East Jerusalem, as quoted from Republika.

The statement said Abbas expected a vote in all Palestinian governorate areas, including East Jerusalem which Israel annexed after the 1967 war. Israel banned all PA activity in East Jerusalem. Israel also has not indicated there will be a Palestinian vote inside Jerusalem which it considers the “undivided capital”.

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Hamas welcomed the announcement. “We have been working in recent months to resolve all obstacles so that we can get to this day,” Hamas said in a statement

The last Palestinian parliamentary vote in 2006 resulted in a surprise victory by Hamas. This widened the internal political rift that led to the group’s confiscation of the Gaza Strip in 2007.

It also contributed to the long delay in establishing further elections. Gaza has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007 when the Hamas movement began taking control of the enclave.

The election will pose huge risks for Abbas’s Fatah party as well as for Hamas as the two have faced protests in recent years over their inability to reconcile with each other. sai.

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Fatah and Hamas have been publicly calling for elections for more than 10 years but the two of them were never able to fix their rift or agree to a process to hold them back.

After the 2006 ballot, clashes between Fatah and Hamas raged for more than a year. This culminated in the takeover of the Gaza Strip by Hamas in 2007, where it remains in power despite an Israeli-Egyptian blockade and three wars with Israel. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)