Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Friday that parliamentary and presidential elections will take place in the country for the first time in 15 years.
Abbas said in a decree that parliamentary elections will be held on May 22 and that the presidential race will be held on July 31 in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
They will be the first such votes since 2006, when the militant group Hamas won in a resounding victory and began a confrontation with Abbas’s Fatah party, which pushed the Palestinian Authority (PA) into a political crisis. . Hamas later took control of the Gaza Strip in a bloody struggle.
Abbas won the presidency for the first time in a 2005 election to determine the successor to the late Yasser Arafat.
Although Fatah and Hamas have promised to hold elections for more than a decade, they have not been able to repair their bitter division and it is still far from certain that the votes will be voted on later this year. Last week, Hamas informed Abbas that it would agree to run in the elections in a reconciliation effort.
Hamas in a statement on Friday expressed its “strong desire to make this obligation a success,” according to The Associated Press.
“We have worked in recent months to overcome all obstacles to get to this day and we have shown a lot of flexibility,” he said in a statement. He also called for dialogue before the vote.
Elections could pose massive dangers for both sides, given growing discontent over the worsening coronavirus pandemic, lack of progress in the push toward the state, poverty and more.
However, it seems that Abbas may be in particularly steep political danger; the 85-year-old leader has been harassed by health issues and is especially unpopular, and may lose to a Hamas candidate.
Abbas’s PA has been ousted during the Trump administration, which carried out a series of actions defended by Israel, including the relocation of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the closure of the mission. diplomatic mission of the AP in Washington. However, if the election were to pass, it could have massive implications for both Israel and the United States
If Abbas loses to a Hamas candidate, he would pose major problems over the governance of the West Bank. It would be virtually impossible for a candidate from the militant group, recognized as a terrorist group by Israel and many Western nations, to take control of the West Bank, over which Jerusalem maintains general security control.
The Abbas government in the West Bank is coordinating with Israel over security issues, but Hamas has waged three wars with the Israeli army since it took the Gaza Strip.
A Hamas victory could also throw a key spell at the president-elect Joe Biden
Joe BidenAzar, in an exit letter, says a Capitol riot threatens to “dirty” the administration’s successes House Democrats are introducing measures to oppose Trump’s bomb sale to the Saudis On The Money. Fast food workers strike for minimum wage U.S. officials raise concerns over Mexico’s handling of energy permits MOREThe plan is to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and re-establish the assistant to the Palestinians, as Washington considers Hamas a terrorist group.
It is still uncertain whether the votes will be held later this year, however, given the impossibility of holding elections in recent years. It is also possible that Israel will block voting in East Jerusalem, which could also jeopardize the election.