Palestinian Authority sets dates for legislative and presidential elections

RAMALLAH: The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Friday announced it will hold its first national elections in more than a decade, in the latest of many attempts to end years of infighting between President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement and his rival Hamas.
Palestinians’ last parliamentary ballot in 2006 resulted in a surprise win by Hamas, widening an internal political rift that led to the group’s seizure of the Gaza Strip in 2007 and contributed to a long delay in setting further elections.