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RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, issued a decree Friday for presidential and parliamentary elections to be held Jan. 24.
Abbas, who leads Fatah, the mainstream nationalist party, had been hoping to put off the elections until June, to be held in the framework of an Egyptian-brokered reconciliation agreement with the rival Islamic group Hamas. But Hamas has so far refused to sign the accord. Abbas was obliged to call the election three months before the current parliament ended its four-year term, as required by the Palestinian basic law.
