There had not been since 2006. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced Friday the organization of legislative and presidential elections in May and July, while the dialogue between his party Fatah and Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip has resumed in recent months.

The Islamist armed movement Hamas welcomed this announcement and considered that "the Palestinian people have the absolute right to choose their own leaders and representatives."

The last Palestinian presidential election took place in January 2005 and the last legislative elections in January 2006, before internal divisions between Hamas and Fatah froze Palestinian political life.

Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, issued "a presidential decree on the holding of general elections in three stages," according to a statement released the evening by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The legislative elections are scheduled for May 22 and the presidential election on July 31, according to the text.

The election for members of the Palestinian National Council, the Parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), will be held on August 31.

In September 2020, Fatah and Hamas agreed to hold elections "within six months," as part of a dialogue between Palestinian factions aimed at joining forces in the face of normalization agreements reached. , under the aegis of the American administration of Donald Trump, between Israel and Arab countries in recent months.

"Free" and "transparent" elections  

"We have worked in recent months to overcome obstacles and achieve" such an announcement, Hamas said in a statement, calling for "free elections where voters can express themselves without pressure and restrictions, with complete transparency ".

During a meeting with the chairman of the Election Commission Hanna Nasser in Ramallah, Mahmoud Abbas called on the commission and government bodies to "launch a democratic election campaign in all regions of Palestine, including East Jerusalem", according to Wafa.

It was not immediately clear whether Israel, which has occupied and annexed East Jerusalem, a Palestinian part of the city, will allow Palestinian residents to vote.

The Palestinians aspire to make the eastern part of Jerusalem the capital of the state to which they aspire.

But Israel sees Jerusalem as its "unified and indivisible" capital.

Mahmoud Abbas' announcement "was eagerly awaited, it is a very important step to launch the electoral process," said Arif Jaffal, director of the Observatory for Democracy and Election of the Arab World Al-Marsad, interviewed by AFP.

With AFP

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