RAMALLAH, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian Central Elections Commission (PCEC) announced on Tuesday that 2.57 million voters have already been registered for the upcoming general elections in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The PCEC said in a statement sent to Xinhua that the registration of voters in the Palestinian territories is scheduled to end at midnight on Tuesday.
The Palestinian citizens in East Jerusalem, who hold Israeli identity cards, will participate in the general elections without being registered in the PCEC's voter registry, it noted.
In the Palestinian territories, 2.8 million Palestinians have the right to vote.
The PCEC opened its election registration offices in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Feb. 10, a day after 14 Palestinian factions agreed in Egypt's capital Cairo to hold the legislative and presidential elections as scheduled and decreed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in mid-January.
Abbas announced in a decree that the 2021 general elections will include legislative elections to be held on May 22, presidential elections on July 31, and the Palestinian National Council elections on Aug. 31.
The last legislative elections in the Palestinian territories were held in late 2006 when Hamas won a majority of 74 of the 132 seats. Abbas was elected as the president of the Palestinian Authority in 2005.
The internal Palestinian division between Hamas and Fatah began in 2007 when Hamas forcibly took over the Gaza Strip from Fatah. Since then, the Palestinian territories have been split into a Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and a Fatah-dominated West Bank. Enditem
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Source: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021-02/16/c_139746698.htm