Palestinian Authority President Abbas sets early 2027 for presidential election.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has issued a decree calling for presidential elections in early 2027 and for legislative elections to be held in November of this year, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, without indicating whether he intends to run.

Abbas, 90, won the last Palestinian presidential election in 2005 with a mandate of four years, which would have ended in 2009. His term was subsequently extended, and no presidential election has taken place since, leaving Abbas to govern by presidential decrees—a practice that has drawn criticism domestically and internationally.

“President Mahmoud Abbas announced that presidential elections will be held in early 2027,” Wafa said, citing a statement from the presidency.

The decree also calls for legislative elections to take place in November of this year.

In the decree, Abbas stated that he was “fully prepared to organise the Palestinian National Council elections scheduled for November, which include the general legislative elections in the homeland and elections abroad.”

The Palestinian National Council (PNC) is the parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and has more than 700 members from the Palestinian territories and abroad.

The last legislative elections in the Palestinian territories were held in 2006, when Hamas won, defeating Abbas’ Fatah party, which had previously dominated Palestinian politics. As a result, the Palestinian Legislative Council—Abbas’ Palestinian Authority parliament—has not met since 2007.

Holding elections is part of the reforms demanded by the international community, which provides financial support to the Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian legal researcher Mahmud Al-Afranji said there is both political will and international pressure on the Palestinian Authority to hold the elections. However, he told AFP that a lack of guarantees that elections would be held in occupied East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip remains “an obstacle to holding the legislative elections.”

In 2021, Abbas announced legislative and presidential elections to be held in May and July of that year, respectively. They were then postponed indefinitely due to the absence of guarantees that voting could take place in East Jerusalem, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

In April, Palestinians voted for municipal council heads in the occupied West Bank, the first vote since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.

AFP

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