The Palestinian leadership in the West Bank has promised to hold long-overdue general elections by September. Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s aide Yasser Abed Rabbo announced in a press conference in Ramallah that preparations are under way for legislative and presidential elections later this year and he called on parties to put aside all of their differences and to focus on conducting the elections by September at the latest. He did not give a firm date for the vote.Hamas, which controls Gaza, immediately ruled out participation, saying the vote was meant to divert attention from the scandal caused by the secret documents uncovered by the Al-Jazeera satellite channel last month. The call for elections came a day after Mubarak stepped down. The Egyptian uprising and another successful revolt in Tunisia a month earlier have inspired calls for democratic reform throughout the region.In a separate development, chief Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat announced his resignation yesterday apparently due to the political damage caused by the internal document leaks by Al-Jazeera, which indicate that Palestinian negotiators secretly offered far-reaching concessions to Israel.