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Abbas postpones parliamentary elections
Published: 04.30.21 , 08:50 Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday postponed planned parliamentary elections amid a dispute over voting in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem and splits in his Fatah party.
Abbas, 85, blamed Israel for uncertainty about whether it would allow the legislative election to proceed in Jerusalem as well as in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. The decision came three months after he announced the first national elections for 15 years in what was widely seen as a response to criticism of the democratic legitimacy of Palestinian institutions, including his own presidency.
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Palestinian president decides on his own to postpone elections The rationale was that Israel refused to allow residents of East Jerusalem to participate. A man uses his phone to film a televised speech by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas regarding planned Palestinian elections at a coffee shop in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on April 29, 2021. Abbas said he was postponing the vote. - HAZEM BADER/AFP via Getty Images
April 30, 2021
While he appears to have received the support of the majority of an unelected group of Palestinians that are referred to as the leadership, it seems 86-year-old Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has unilaterally decided to postpone elections. Abbas said the night of April 29 that the vote was postponed because of Israel’s refusal to allow residents of East Jerusalem to participate, but most of those who were running for the May 22 legislative elections he had called for in a January set of presidential decrees wa
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced early Friday that the legislative elections scheduled for May 22 will be postponed until further notice.
We have decided to postpone the elections until the participation of our people in East Jerusalem is guaranteed, Abbas said.
The Palestinian president made a televised speech after a leadership meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
We call on the international community to put pressure on Israel to stop its aggressive practices, he added.
On Thursday evening, the PLO was convening a leadership meeting to decide whether the first Palestinian vote in 15 years would be postponed.
FILE – In this Aug. 18, 2020 file photo, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gestures during a meeting with the Palestinian leadership, in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (Mohamad Torokman/Pool Photo via AP, File)
JERUSALEM (AP) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said early Friday that the main factions have agreed to delay the first elections planned in 15 years, citing a dispute with Israel over voting in east Jerusalem.
The decision spares Abbas’ fractured Fatah party from what was widely expected to be another embarrassing defeat to the Islamic militant group Hamas, which slammed the move as a “coup.” It will be quietly welcomed by Israel and Western countries, which view Hamas as a terrorist group and are concerned about its growing strength.