Palestinian passage of new election law reopens door to vote

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Palestinian passage of new election law reopens door to vote

June 18, 2005 11:57:00 am

[JURIST] The Palestinian parliament voted Saturday to pass a new law creating an electoral system which will allow districts to choose 50% of the lawmakers with the other 50% coming from a list of national party candidates. The new law has opened the door to reschedule the July 17 parliamentary elections which were postponed [JURIST report] earlier this month by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas [BBC profile]. Abbas' decision seemed to be an attempt to allow his Fateh party [party website in Arabic] time to bolster their power against opposing Islamic Hamas [Wikipedia profile]. AP has more.

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