Palestine electoral panel visits Gaza to talk to Hamas

RAMALLAH, Palestine

Members of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Electoral Commission visited the blockaded Gaza Strip on Wednesday to discuss upcoming Palestinian legislative polls with Hamas, which has governed the strip since 2007.

Delegation members are slated to meet with leading Hamas officials -- including Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the group’s political bureau -- later Thursday.

In December, President Mahmoud Abbas claimed that the Palestinian Constitutional Court had dissolved the Palestinian Legislative Council (parliament) and had called for legislative elections -- throughout the Palestinian territories -- within six months.

Hamas, for its part, has challenged the legitimacy of the alleged court ruling, which it says was illegally influenced by Abbas.

Writing by Mahmoud Barakat