Abbas dissolves PA parliament, calls for elections in 6 months

RAMALLAH - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that the inoperative Palestinian Authority (PA) parliament, better known as the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), was dissolved.

He made the announcement in a speech addressed before a meeting for the Palestinian leadership, including Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee and his Fatah Party's Central Committee.

The Palestinian Constitutional Court issued a decision of dissolving the PLC and to prepare for holding new parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories within six months, said Abbas at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Islamic Hamas movement dominates the PLC after it had won about 70 seats out of 132 seats of the parliament in the parliamentary elections held in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in January 2006.

Abbas chaired a meeting of the Palestinian leadership on Saturday evening to debate the recent Israeli army escalation in the West Bank, where seven Palestinians had been killed within the last ten days.

He said that "this is what has to be implemented immediately as the first step against Hamas movement."

"If Hamas movement rejects the Palestinian reconciliation and ending the internal division, we should go to the end in making decisions that were discussed by the central council of the PLO and its other committees," Abbas said.

The PLC has been inoperative since the beginning of the internal Palestinian split between Hamas and Fatah in 2007 after Hamas had violently seized control of the Gaza Strip and routed Abbas security forces.

Hamas, which has a majority in the PLC, had been unilaterally holding regular PLC sessions in the Gaza Strip amid the absence of Fatah Party members and other minor factions and political groups.