US congratulates "peaceful" Palestinian local elections

The United States congratulated on Friday the "peaceful" local elections in Palestine and urged Israel and Palestine to continue their cooperation.

While congratulating the Palestinian people on having conducted another round of peaceful elections, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said at a briefing that "we certainly also want to recognize that Israel and the Palestinians cooperated effectively during this election cycle, and we hope that cooperation will continue."

"We definitely do want to see broader progress towards reforms and democratization and renewal of Palestinian institutions," he said.

The spokesman said the United States is waiting for the final results as preliminary results show that the Fatah Movement earned a strong majority of council seats.

Firas Yagi, Executive Director of the Higher Commission for Local Elections, said Friday that the mainstream Fatah movement led by Palestinian leader Mohammed Abbas has taken the lead in the second stage of Palestinian local elections.

The official said that after counting all votes the ruling Fatah movement won 55 percent of the total seats, scoring high in the Gaza Strip, while the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) won 33 percent of the seats.

Source: Xinhua