A handout picture provided by the Palestinian Authority's press office (PPO) on Jan 15, 2021, shows Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas (right) handing the elections decree to the chairman of the central election committee Hanna Nasser, in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (THAER GHANAIM / PPO / AFP)

RAMALLAH, West Bank/GAZA - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced parliamentary and presidential elections on Friday, the first in 15 years, in an effort to heal long-standing internal divisions.

It also comes days before the inauguration of US President-elect Joe Biden, with whom the Palestinians want to reset relations after they reached a low under President Donald Trump.

According to a decree issued by Abbas’s office, the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, will hold legislative elections on May 22 and a presidential vote on July 31.

Palestinian factions have renewed reconciliation efforts to try and present a united front since Israel reached diplomatic agreements last year with four Arab countries

“The President instructed the election committee and all state apparatuses to launch a democratic election process in all cities of the homeland,” the decree said, referring to the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

Palestinian factions have renewed reconciliation efforts to try and present a united front since Israel reached diplomatic agreements last year with four Arab countries.

Those accords dismayed Palestinians and left them increasingly isolated in a region that has seen allegiances shift to reflect shared fears of Iran by Israel and Sunni-led Gulf Arab states.

Hamas, the Islamist militant group which is Abbas’s main domestic rival, welcomed the announcement.

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“We have worked in the past months to resolve all obstacles so that we can reach this day,” a Hamas statement said.

It called for fair elections, in which “electorates can express their will without restrictions or pressures.”

With Biden taking office on Jan 20, “it is as if the Palestinians are telling the incoming US administration: we are ready to engage,” Gaza analyst Hani Habib said.

Tight contest

The Palestinians’ last parliamentary ballot, in 2006, resulted in a surprise win by Hamas, creating a rift that deepened when Hamas seized military control of Gaza in 2007.

Recent polls suggest a tight contest in the parliamentary election. In December 2020 the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 38 percent would vote for Fatah in parliamentary elections, and 34 percent  for Hamas

Recent polls suggest a tight contest. In December 2020 the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 38 percent would vote for Fatah in parliamentary elections, and 34 percent  for Hamas.

But it predicted that Hamas would have the edge in a presidential vote, with 50 percent  preferring Hamas leader Ismail Haniyyeh and 43 percent  Abbas.

Although Abbas won the last presidential election in 2005, Hamas did not run against him.

Hamas dropped its boycott of the political process the following year, running a well-organized parliamentary campaign under the banner ‘Change and Reform’ and defeating the hitherto-dominant Fatah faction that was widely seen as corrupt, nepotistic, out of touch and divided.

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It remains unclear how Abbas will overcome the logistical difficulties of holding elections in three areas, each under different control.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move that has not won international recognition. It regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestinians seek the city’s east as capital of a future state.

Israel forbids any official activity in Jerusalem by the PA, saying it breaches 1990s interim peace deals.