Abbas says he’ll call general elections when he returns from UN

PA President Mahmoud Abbas promises to call general elections in areas that the Palestinians envision as part of a future state when he returns to Ramallah from the UN General Assembly.

“From the outset, we have believed in democracy as a foundation for the building of our State and society. We have enshrined this in our constitution and exercised this on the ground. We conducted general elections in 1996, 2005 and 2006, in addition to regular local elections,” he says.

Abbas blames the Hamas terror group’s takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007 for the failure of elections to be held since then.

“I call on the UN and the relevant international organizations to monitor these elections, and I will attribute full responsibility to those who may attempt to prevent it from happening on the date determined,” he says.

He doesn’t address how the West Bank based-PA will administer the elections in Gaza and East Jerusalem, which are respectively under Hamas and Israeli control.

Abbas, who is in the 14th year of a five-year president term, also doesn’t say whether the elections will be for president, the PA legislature, or both.