Palestinian Fatah, Hamas Agree to Hold Elections within 6 Months

This morning, the Palestinian "Fatah" and "Hamas" movements have agreed to hold legislative elections within the next six months.

The negotiators of the two movements had made remarkable progress in their continuous meetings over two days, hosted by Turkey, towards the formal announcement of reconciliation and agreement.

A senior Fatah official told Al-Ain News: "It was agreed to hold general elections within 6 months," during the meetings held by the two sides at the headquarters of the Palestinian Consulate in Istanbul.

He added: "President Mahmoud Abbas will soon issue a presidential decree calling for legislative elections."

The official, who preferred not to be named, indicated that the elections will be legislative in accordance with the full proportional law in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

He noted that presidential elections will be called later.

This will be the first legislative elections since 2006, in which Hamas scored a landmark victory in the movement’s first parliamentary race.

Hamas has never participated in presidential elections that took place for the last time in 2005, when President Abbas was elected to succeed the late President Yasser Arafat.

Fatah and Hamas said that the meetings over the past days resulted in an "agreed vision between the two delegations that will be presented for a comprehensive national dialogue with the participation of Palestinian forces and factions."

Palestinian media reported earlier that "Fatah" offered to hold elections for the National and Legislative Council and the presidency in the coming months, provided that the legislative elections would result in an agreed national unity government, while the national elections would result in an executive committee and a new head of the organization.

The delegations of "Fatah" and "Hamas" are due to arrive in Cairo within the next two days, to meet with Egyptian officials and complete reconciliation talks between the two sides.