President Abbas decrees first parliamentary, presidential elections in Palestine in 15 years

  The Palestinian leadership has been divided between Fatah and Hamas since 2006 when the latter scored a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in the besieged Gaza Strip. Hamas has ever since been running the densely-populated coastal enclave, while Fatah has been based in the autonomous parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The Palestinian president’s Friday’s decree came almost a decade after both parties began calling for elections but have never been able to patch up their differences or agree on a process for holding the votes. Hamas welcomed the decree and expressed its “strong eagerness to make this obligation successful.” “We have worked in the past months to surmount all hurdles to reach this day, and we have shown a lot of flexibility,” the resistance movement said in a statement, calling for dialogue ahead of the votes. However, the new decree remained far from clear whether the voting would actually be held. Previous reconciliation attempts by the two sides to form a power-sharing unity government in Gaza and the West Bank have failed. The pair agreed on a unity government in April 2014, but it fell apart months later. According to the decree’s timeline, legislative elections will be held on May 22, followed by presidential elections on July 31. Elections for the National Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which represents the Palestinian cause internationally, will be held on August 31.