Palestinian officials arrive in Gaza for talks with Hamas over elections

Gaza/RAMALLAH, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian Central Elections Commission (CEC) officials arrived on Wednesday evening in the Gaza Strip from the West Bank to hold talks with leaders of the Islamic Hamas movement over the elections.

Hanna Nassir, the head of CEC who led a delegation, crossed in the coastal enclave through the Israeli-controlled Erez crossing point on the border between northern Gaza Strip and Israel.

The CEC spokesman Farid Ta'mallah told Xinhua that "Nassir will meet with Ismail Haniyeh, the politburo chief of Hamas movement at his office in Gaza and other senior Hamas leaders to discuss the file of holding the Palestinian elections."

"Nassir will also hold meetings and talks with leaders of other Palestinian factions for the elections in the Palestinian territories," said Ta'mallah.

The CEC delegation will go back to Ramallah in the West Bank on Friday to brief the Palestinian leadership on the results of their talks with Hamas and other factions.

Last week, the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked Nassir to head to Gaza for talks with Hamas, according to the Palestinian Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh.

"Nassir's visit to Gaza is part of the consultations and preparations for holding the parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories," al-Sheikh wrote on his Twitter page last week.

Abbas has met with the CEC members for three times since his declaration on Dec. 22, 2018 that a Palestinian Constitutional Court decided to dissolve the parliament of the Palestinian Authority (PA), known as the Legislative Council.

The last presidential election was held in 2005, where President Abbas was elected and succeeded late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat who died in November 2004.

The last parliamentary elections were held in January 2006, in which the Hamas movement won an overwhelming majority in the PA parliament.

The rival Hamas and Fatah movements are trading accusations on who is obstructing holding general elections. Hamas wants presidential and parliamentary, while Abbas insists on holding parliamentary elections only in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.