The Hamas movement announced it will be holding its internal elections in early 2021 after holding talks in the Qatari capital Doha.
Politburo member Mousa Abu Marzouk said that the elections would take place at the beginning of next year.
Preliminary elections will be held at the end of 2020.
Hamas sources confirmed to Asharq al-Awsat that until now politburo chief, Ismail Haniyeh, remains the strongest candidate to lead the movement for a second term.
The sources said that Haniyeh would remain abroad and continue to run Hamas from Qatar.
The preliminary elections will begin at the end of the year and continue until mid-2021, and will include electing members of the politburo and Shura Council.
Haniyeh was elected in May 2017 as head of the politburo, during the elections that included Abu Marzouk, Mohammad Nazzal and Saleh al-Arouri all of whom reside abroad, and a fifth candidate ran from inside the West Bank.
Haniyeh was elected a few days after the movement announced its controversial new political document, in which it accepted a Palestinian state according to the 1967 borders. It also announced its disengagement from the Muslim Brotherhood.
Haniyeh advanced quickly in the Hamas ranks since running for its legislative council in 2006. He was then appointed as the head of the Palestinian government formed by President Mahmoud Abbas at the time.
He also chaired Hamas' cabinet in Gaza formed in defiance of Abbas's decision to dissolve the government. He was later elected as deputy to Khaled Meshaal, after which he resigned from the government and devoted himself to the movement.
The movement’s bylaws allow the head of the politburo to run for two consecutive terms only.
Former Hamas chief Meshaal served two terms before Haniyeh and is considered a possible candidate in the new elections.
