Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s top internecine rival, Mohammad Dahlan, often mentioned as a possible candidate to succeed the 81-year-old leader, said Sunday he will not run for president in future Palestinian elections.
The Palestinian high court on Monday ordered municipal elections to be held only in the West Bank and not in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, though a new date for the suspended polls was not set.
TEL AVIV – Local elections in the Palestinian Authority (PA)-administered territories are heating up, with local news reports of gunfire and threats against candidates as well as the burning of their property and a slew of related arrests. Palestinian media
Palestinian political parties began registering candidates for municipal elections on Wednesday, the first step in years toward a democratic vote but one that threatens to re-inflame tensions between the rival Fatah and Hamas movements.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) became the first Palestinian faction to announce that it will boycott the upcoming municipal elections set to take place on October 8th, according to a PIJ press release.
Hamas has announced that it will field a full list of candidates in Palestinian local and municipal elections scheduled for October, in an apparent surprise for the Palestinian Authority (PA).
