Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has announced plans for parliamentary and presidential elections for the first time in about 15 years, as Palestinians try to rebuild ties with President-elect Joe Biden after he fell to the Trump administration.
Palestinians have repeatedly tried to hold elections in the past decade, but each attempt has been marred by challenges, including heightened divisions between Fatah, the party that largely controls the Palestinian Authority that governs the West Bank, and Hamas, a Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza. .
However, the decree issued on Friday night by 85-year-old Abbas, who is in his 16th year in a four-year term in 2005, was the most distant Palestinian to arrive. legally in the organization of national elections in the last decade and a half.
The Palestinian leader’s decree set legislative elections for May 22 and presidential elections for July 31. Elections for the Palestinian National Council, which represents Palestinians abroad, have been set for August 31.
The proposal is part of a wider effort to heal the internal schisms within the Palestinian leadership. The issue of Palestinian unity has grown in importance for both Hamas and Fatah, following the US-signed Abraham Accords, which since September last year have seen Israel normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. For decades, the Palestinians have relied on their Arab allies to refuse normalization relations with Israel until Israel has made peace with them.