Abbas plans Palestinian elections after Hamas "coup"
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RAMALLAH, West Bank  - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday he will order early parliamentary and presidential elections in response to what he called last month's "coup" by Hamas Islamists in the Gaza Strip.
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RAMALLAH, West Bank, Dec. 16 -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced Saturday that he has decided to call early elections, including for his own office, to end a political crisis in the territories that has brought a surge in deadly factional violence over the past week.
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RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas decreed new election rules yesterday intended to make it more difficult for his faction's Hamas rivals to win the presidency or keep their majority in Parliament.
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RAMALLAH, West Bank  - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is planning to call early elections, seeing little point in further talks on a government to replace a Hamas-led coalition boycotted by the West, aides said on Saturday.
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Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas,  frontrunner to succeed Yasser Arafat, said Wednesday that he  expected negotiations on Israel's plan to withdraw from the  Gaza Strip after Palestinian elections next month.
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Israel expects Mahmoud Abbas to win Sunday's Palestinian presidential election and is ready to open talks with him, offering to free Palestinian prisoners if Abbas cracks down on Palestinian rocket attacks, senior Israeli officials said.
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The move is meant to help Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his struggle against Hamas.
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In his bitter wrangling with Hamas over legitimacy, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is considering calling presidential and legislative elections to strengthen his position, a top aide said Thursday.
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RAMALLAH, West Bank  - Mahmoud Abbas, a  Palestinian moderate aiming to talk peace with Israel, was on  course for a landslide victory in an election for a successor  to Yasser Arafat Sunday, exit polls showed.
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RAMALLAH, West Bank  - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas vowed on Monday to press on with early elections as a truce between his security forces and the Hamas government threatened to unravel in the Gaza Strip.
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Jailed popular leader Marwan Barghouthi  decided on Wednesday to run in a Palestinian presidential  election and Hamas militants vowed to boycott it, throwing the  campaign into turmoil after Yasser Arafat's death.
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RAMALLAH, West Bank  - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday he would call for early elections despite Hamas's rejection of the plan.
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Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on  Wednesday vowed a crackdown on armed groups operating in  Palestinian areas in order to smooth the way to a Jan. 9  election for a successor to Yasser Arafat.
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RAMALLAH, West Bank  - Mahmoud Abbas declared that  he had won a Palestinian presidential election on Sunday and  dedicated his victory to Yasser Arafat, the iconic leader he is  replacing.
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BEERSHEBA, ISRAEL - The man favoured to become the next Palestinian leader has agreed to hold internal elections within the ruling Fatah movement, in an attempt to head off the political challenge from a key rival.
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RAMALLAH, West Bank  - A gunbattle sparked by  militants confronting moderate interim Palestinian leader  Mahmoud Abbas on a visit to Gaza underscores the urgent need  for elections to replace Yasser Arafat, Palestinian officials  said.
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday said he will support an expected decision by a top PLO decision-making body to call early elections.