Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas and their rivals Fatah in the West Bank have agreed to hold the first Palestinian elections since 2006, united by their opposition to Arab-Israeli normalisation deals.
Polls will be scheduled within six months under a deal reached between Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, officials from both sides told Agence France-Presse.
“We have agreed to first hold legislative elections, then presidential elections of the Palestinian Authority, and finally the Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organisation” said Jibril Rajub, a senior Fatah official, on Friday AEST.
The last Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 saw Hamas win an unexpected landslide and the following year the Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip in a near-civil war between the two factions.
Saleh al-Arouri, a top Hamas official, said the deal was reached during meetings held in Turkey.
“This time we reached a real consensus,” he said from Istanbul.
“Divisions have damaged our national cause and we are working to end that.”
The intra-Palestinian reconciliation attempts took on greater urgency after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalised relations with Israel, becoming only the third and fourth Arab nations to do so.
Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi welcomed the announcement to convene new elections, saying it was a “long overdue” move to “revitalise and unify” Palestinian ranks.
Read the article by Nasser Abu Bakr in The Australian.