Date Set For Municipal Elections

Tuesday February 08, 2011 21:21 by Circarre Parrhesia - IMEMC & Agencies

Agence France-Presse are reporting, on Tuesday, that the date has been confirmed for the upcoming Palestinian municipal elections, announced last week by Palestinian Prime Minister in the West Bank, Salam Fayyed.

The date has been set for July 9 2011, and will be the first elections held in the area since 2006 when Hamas shocked the Fatah movement by beating them into second place, followed by a bloody conflict between the two parties and their followers over control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.

In 2010 the Palestinian Authority canceled municipal elections set for July 17 right after closing the doors for submitting candidates.

The decision created uproar among the Palestinian groups especially the leftist ones as they have created coalitions in different parts of the West Bank who had a great potential to win over Fatah in many locations.

Since 2007 Hamas have retained their control of the Gaza Strip, whilst Fatah have controlled the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Several attempts have been made to hold elections since 2007, the most recent being July 2010, but each time the expected elections have come close, the PA has postponed them.

In response to Fayyad's announcement of coming elections the Hamas party stated that they would not participate in, nor recognize the results of this election, leading most to believe that the municipal elections will take place in the West Bank, but not the Gaza Strip.

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