Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' party says the Palestinian high court has postponed municipal elections set for next month till at least December. The Oct. 8 vote would have been the first contest at the ballot box between Abbas' Fatah and archrival Hamas since their territorial split in 2007. At the time, Hamas seized the Gaza Strip, leaving Abbas with autonomous enclaves in the Israeli-controlled West Bank. Fatah says the court ruled on Thursday that the elections are on hold until it could look into several appeals and that the next hearing would only be held Dec. 21. A court official confirmed the ruling. She spoke on condition of anonymity, saying she could only speak to reporters once the decision was published later Thursday. IMF: 2 decades of restrictions stalled Palestinian growth The International Monetary Fund says Israeli movement restrictions and political uncertainty have severely hindered Palestinian economic growth. In a report Wednesday, the fund estimates that without such restrictions, Palestinian per capita GDP since 1994 would have been from 37 percent to 130 percent higher. The fund came up with a range because it used three different growth scenarios. Israel has portrayed movement restrictions as security measures. The report on the Palestinian economy was released ahead of a meeting of donor country representatives later this month, at a time of continued deadlock in attempts to negotiate the terms of Palestinian statehood. The report says aid to the Palestinians is declining and that the Palestinian self-rule government faces a financing gap of almost $500 million this year, or 3.5 percent of GDP.
