Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas started the legal procedure, in Ramallah today, for presidential and legislative elections to take place in three months’ time, on 24 January 2010.
In the announcement, Abbas said that the elections would take place in the West Bank, in East Jerusalem, and in the Gaza Strip which has been controlled by Hamas since the rout of Fatah/Palestinian Preventive Security Forces there in mid-June 2007.
Hamas spokespersons denounced Abbas’ announcement.