Key takeaways:
- Legislative elections planned for Nov. 28, 2026, are now scheduled for Sept. 11, 2027, alongside a presidential vote.
- The PLO Executive Committee said conditions in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza were not conducive to elections.
- Palestinians last elected a legislature in 2006 and a president in 2005.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has postponed legislative elections planned for next month, pushing the first such vote in nearly 20 years to Sept. 11, 2027, when Palestinians are also due to elect a president.
The new date, announced in a decree reported by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, replaces a Nov. 28 legislative vote. A presidential election had been expected in early 2027. Palestinians last elected a legislature in 2006 and a president in 2005.
The decree followed a meeting of senior Palestinian officials to discuss delaying the vote. The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which Abbas heads, said conditions in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were not conducive to elections. It said Israel had not allowed election materials or international observers into Gaza.
WAFA also cited Israeli military raids, settlement expansion and settler violence in the West Bank as obstacles to a fair vote, according to Al Jazeera. The agency pointed to withheld Palestinian tax revenues, restrictions on candidates and observers entering Gaza and East Jerusalem, and a lack of progress on Gaza’s reconstruction and the deployment of an international stabilization force.
The delay keeps the current Palestinian leadership in place without an electoral challenge. The Palestinian Authority, dominated by Abbas’ Fatah party, administers semiautonomous parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It has grown unpopular during his presidency; many Palestinians view it as corrupt and criticize its security cooperation with Israel.
The last legislative election, in 2006, gave Hamas a majority of seats. Israel and Western countries boycotted the resulting government, and factional unrest followed. Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, leaving it in power there while the Palestinian Authority governed in the West Bank.
The postponement had been under discussion among Palestinian factions. Islamic Jihad deputy secretary-general Mohammed al-Hindi told The Associated Press earlier this week that factions across the political spectrum had met in Cairo to discuss a delay, according to CBS News. Al Jazeera reported that a source told AFP the factions, including Fatah, wanted a national dialogue before legislative elections.
No major faction had registered an electoral slate before the postponement, CBS News reported. The network said veteran officials had nevertheless discussed joining forces against Abbas, including an alliance involving Hamas, Islamic Jihad and a bloc led by former Fatah security chief Mohammed Dahlan.
“Abbas is terrified by the electoral alliance bringing our faction together with opposition factions and forces within Fatah that reject his leadership,” Dimitri Dilliani, a spokesperson for Dahlan’s faction, said in a statement.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Abbas on Friday of “fooling the international community” by planning to cancel promised elections, Al Jazeera reported.
Abbas, 90, has served as president since 2005. His term should have ended in 2009, but he has ruled by decree since then and has delayed several presidential and legislative elections.
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