Palestinian elections could prove promising or impossible
It's hard to tell whether Palestinian elections will help heal the Hamas-Fatah divide, as some people hope, or if the divide will prevent elections from even happening.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Many Palestinian journalists, nongovernmental organizations and members of the public concur that holding comprehensive elections — for the presidency and legislature at the same time, and in all the territories — is the best remedy for the 12-year-long Palestinian divide, after all attempts to end the Fatah-Hamas split have failed.
But many people, mostly Fatah members and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, don't agree. As could be expected, reaching a consensus seems only a distant possibility at this point.
The dissolution of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), in accordance with the Constitutional Court’s decision in December, has triggered talks about the elections in the Palestinian territories. The court explained that a key reason behind its decision was that the PLC has been largely ineffectual since 2007, without Fatah's participation.
On Dec. 21, Abbas called for legislative elections to take place in the Palestinian territories within six months. He stressed in February that the date of the elections would be decided after making sure it's possible to hold those elections in all of the Palestinian territories.
