[Al Arabiya Latest] Ineffectual Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas announced on Friday that presidential and legislative elections will be held on January 24 in the Palestinian territories including the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, his office said in a statement.
Abbas "invited the Palestinian people in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to take part in free and direct presidential and legislative elections on Sunday January 24, 2010" the statement said.
Abbas, whose presidential term expired in early 2009, had said on Tuesday he would issue a decree calling the elections, in a move apparently meant to press Hamas into signing a much-delayed unity deal with his Fatah faction. |