The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nikolai Mladenov confirmed "Thursday" the organization´s support to the Palestinians in exercising their right to elect their leaders.
"The United Nations continues its efforts in support of the Palestinians in exercising their right to elect their leaders," Mladenov said on his Twitter account.
He pointed out that he met yesterday in Ramallah with members of the Central Elections Committee, and today with the deputy head of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) Mahmoud Al-Aloul, "on the next necessary steps if this horizon is to become a reality in all of the occupied Palestinian territory."
For its part, the Fatah movement said in a statement that Al-Aloul discussed with Mladenov "the role that the United Nations plays in order to make the elections in the Palestinian territories a success, especially the issue of Jerusalem´s participation in the elections."
According to the statement, Al-Aloul emphasized that Fatah´s insistence on organizing general elections "as an important constitutional and legal station, and in the belief in the importance of strengthening democratic life and the right of citizens to choose their representatives in various sectors."
He stated that the Fatah movement believes that the Palestinian citizen has the right to decide his representatives in free and democratic elections "in light of the continuing state of division resulting from the control of Hamas in the Gaza Strip" since mid-2007.
The last Palestinian elections for the Legislative Council took place in early 2006 and resulted in a victory for the Hamas movement, while it was a year earlier that a presidential election won by Abbas.
