The Palestinian electoral commission has indefinitely postponed the 24 January general election.

Commission chief Hana Nasir said it had advised President Abbas to postpone the election because the Islamist Hamas movement that controls the Gaza Strip has refused to allow people living in the Strip to vote.
 

Various Palestinian organisations have also called for reconciliation between Hamas and the more secular Fatah movement, which controls the West Bank, before the parliamentary and presidential elections. Tensions between the two organisations go back to the beginning of the 1990s when limited Palestinian self rule began. The situation worsened when Hamas unexpectedly won the January 2006 elections and escalated further still in June 2007 when Hamas and Fatah fought a brief but bloody war for control of Gaza. The Islamists pushed Fatah out and took control of the Gaza Strip.
 

The elections were thrown into doubt last week when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced that he would not be seeking re-election. According to his aides, Mr Abbas was frustrated by his inability to persuade Washington to push for a settlement freeze in the West Bank.