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Palestinian president sets date for elections

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-24 04:45

RAMALLAH: The Palestinian president signed a decree on Friday calling for presidential and parliamentary elections on January 24, a move likely to deepen the rift with the rival militant Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip.

Mahmoud Abbas' decree was expected after reconciliation talks between his Fatah movement and rival Hamas failed this week. A deal would have postponed the vote until June.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Abbas, said the president's decree calls for elections in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza. But it remained unclear how Abbas' faction intends to organize the balloting in Israeli-controlled east Jerusalem or in the Hamas-ruled Gaza.

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Hamas promptly condemned the decision, with its spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri saying Abbas' government can't hold the elections in Gaza.

"This announcement means that elections will take place only in the West Bank, cementing the Palestinian split instead of fixing the problem," Abu Zuhri said.

Relations between Abbas' Fatah Party and Hamas collapsed after Hamas violently seized control of Gaza in June 2007, leaving Abbas governing only the West Bank.

Egypt failed this week to get the two sides to another round of talks in Cairo, where it hoped they would sign a reconciliation deal.

Abu Rdeneh said that without a Fatah-Hamas agreement, Abbas is constitutionally bound to hold elections in January.

Palestinian elections were last held in 2005.