Palestinian factions to respect results of first polls in 15 years

Fatah and Hamas said they had agreed on ‘mechanisms’ for elections and to respect their results, after years of biter divisions; parliamentary and presidential polls are set for May 22 and July 31

Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas said they had agreed on “mechanisms” for forthcoming elections and to respect their outcome, after years of bitter divisions.

In a joint statement on the second day of talks between Palestinian factions in Cairo, they said they had agreed a timeline for the polls and “committed to respecting and accepting their results.”

The deal provides for an “electoral court” with exclusive jurisdiction over the electoral process and any cases arising from the elections, the first in 15 years.

The parliamentary and presidential polls are set for May 22 and July 31, respectively.

The movement Hamas, blacklisted as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States, won an unexpected landslide at the last elections in 2006, a victory not recognised by president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah.

That led to bloody clashes the following year and a split in Palestinian governance.

Fatah has since run the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Hamas has held power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, the year Israel imposed a devastating blockade on the coastal enclave.