Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivers a speech during a rally marking the 15th anniversary of the death of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Nov. 11, 2019. (Photo by Ayman Nobani/Xinhua)
RAMALLAH, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stressed on Monday that the general Palestinian elections must be held in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.
"Without this, there will be no elections," Abbas said after he laid a wreath on the tomb of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah.
Members of the Palestinian leadership and hundreds of Palestinians attended the ceremony of marking the 15th anniversary for the death of Arafat, who died in a French hospital in November 2004.
"These days, we decided to go for legislative elections and then we will go for the presidential elections," said Abbas.
He stressed that the Palestinians "are going to achieve holding the elections under all circumstances," adding that "it is our hope and our dream for establishing the independent Palestinian state, self-determination and return."
Hanna Nasser, head of the Palestinian Central Election Commission, has been holding dialogue during the past few weeks with Palestinian factions, mainly the Islamic Hamas movement, on holding the legislative and presidential elections.
The last Palestinian general election was held in 2006, in which Hamas won a parliamentary majority. The presidential elections were held in 2005 and Abbas won.
