Palestinians announce presidential and parliamentary elections to be held before September
The Palestinians announced in an official statement on Saturday that presidential and parliamentary elections would be held before September.The announcement was made after a meeting in Ramallah on the West Bank of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) under Mahmoud Abbas's presidency.
"The Executive Committee has decided to start preparations for presidential and parliamentary elections in the coming months ... no later than September," the committee secretary Yasser Abed Rabbo told journalists.
The PLO, which groups the main Palestinian nationalist movements, has been under Abbas's leadership since 2004.
But Hamas movement rejected the move as invalid. "This procedure is invalid because president (Mahmud) Abbas has no legitimacy and is not fit to organize such elections," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said.