Palestinian Leaders Suddenly Call for Elections

[pampango]

Source: New York Times

The Palestinian leadership announced Saturday that it planned to hold presidential and parliamentary elections by September, apparently a response to the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt calling for greater democracy and government accountability.

The Islamist Hamas faction rejected the plan for national elections, saying Mr. Abbas had no legitimacy to call for them since he was serving beyond his term.

The Palestinians have not held elections since 2006, when Hamas won a majority in the parliament, leading to a year and a half of uneasy power sharing and a brief civil war in June 2007. Since then, Hamas has governed Gaza and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority has controlled the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority announced that postponed local elections would be held in July, a move that Hamas also rejected. Hamas has said it believes that elections should follow a reconciliation process between itself and Fatah, including a restructuring of the P.L.O. to include Hamas, which is currently excluded.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/world/middleeast/13mideast.html?_r=1

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Things are happening fast all of a sudden. Thank you, Tunisian people. And thank you, Egyptian people.

[dipsydoodle]

1. and thank you Al Jazeera Transparency Unit

http://www.ajtransparency.com/en/search_english

[ananda]

4. And thank you for posting the AJ Transparency Unit.

AFAIC, everything in foreign policy everywhere should be transparent.

Thank you to Wikileaks, Anonleaks, and other brave leakers as well.

[midnight]

2. Things are getting interesting....The middle east going for democracy....

The midwest,ie. Wisconsin, going all Mubarak....

[FreakinDJ]

3. +1000000