Former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced March 9 his plans to participate in the upcoming Palestinian Legislative Council elections. In a wide-ranging interview published on the front page of the leading Palestinian daily newspaper Al Quds, Fayyad said he plans to “establish a list of independent individuals to participate in the upcoming legislative elections in an honorable, transparent and competitive way.”
Omar Bseiso, a Gaza-based elections expert, told Al-Monitor that the announcement of the former prime minister is a reminder to Palestinian voters of the right they "have been deprived of for over 15 years.” Bseiso, who worked on Fayyad’s 2006 campaign, said the only problem he has with Fayyad is “his long political and social absence.”
