Abstract:
Last February, President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), issued a decree-by-law, declaring that parliamentary elections will take place on 22 May, and presidential elections on 24 July of this year. This declaration comes after fifteen years of living under an emergency regime in the West Bank, which started in July 2007, when Fatah, the losing party in the 2006 parliamentary elections, refused to make a peaceful transition of power to the winning party of Hamas. Since that year, Hamas has been ruling Gaza and Fatah has been ruling the West Bank through their own respective governments. Suddenly, Abbas decided to hold the elections. There are two explanations for "why now?" that Palestinian analysts propose.
