فاس نيوز ميديا جريدة الكترونية جهوية تعنى بشؤون و أخبار جهة فاس مكناس – متجددة على مدار الساعة
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued, on Wednesday, a decree specifying the mechanisms for governance during the transitional period in the event of a presidential vacancy, effectively excluding Hamas from managing the authority during this phase.
According to the decree, and in the absence of the Palestinian Legislative Council, the President of the Palestinian National Council will temporarily assume presidential duties. This decision comes after Abbas officially dissolved the Legislative Council in 2018, following years of tensions between Fatah and Hamas movements.
The Palestinian National Council, which includes over 700 members from Palestinian territories and abroad, is an institution of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Since Hamas is not part of the organization, it will remain outside this arrangement.
The decree stipulates holding presidential elections within a maximum of 90 days, with the possibility of a one-time extension in cases of force majeure. This decision comes in a context Abbas described as a “delicate phase” in the history of the Palestinian cause, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and continued divisions between the two movements.
The announcement of the decree comes on the day a truce between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon takes effect, after more than a year of fighting.
It is worth noting that President Abbas, 89 years old, has not undergone presidential elections since the end of his term in December 2009, and has refused over the years to appoint a vice president or heir to the presidency.
The Palestinian Authority faces unprecedented challenges, struggling to pay civil servant salaries and facing increasing threats due to potential Israeli plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, under Benjamin Netanyahu’s government – the most right-wing in Israel’s history.
