Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Announces Legislative Elections for November 28

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has announced that legislative elections will be held in late November, as his government comes under mounting international pressure to demonstrate its legitimacy.

Abbas issued a decree on Thursday declaring the election date for November 28 in all of the Palestinian Territories, including the occupied West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem and Gaza.

If the vote goes ahead, it will be the first in 20 years.

The last legislative elections in the Palestinian Territories were held in 2006, when Hamas secured a shock victory. The result triggered a political split with Abbas’s previously dominant Fatah party, culminating in Hamas taking control of Gaza in 2007.

“This is understood to be a consequence, an outcome if you will, of the dialogue between the Palestinian president, the Palestinian leadership and foreign countries, namely powerful countries,” said Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

“France, Saudi Arabia and others want to see change and what they call reform in the Palestinian Authority in order to provide it with [the] assistance that it sorely needs,” Odeh added.

Several issues will need to be resolved before the elections can go ahead. Israel, which has yet to comment publicly on the announcement, would need to allow Palestinians to vote in occupied East Jerusalem.

In 2021, Palestinian legislative and presidential elections were cancelled after Israel did not guarantee that voting could be held there.

In Gaza, Israel’s genocidal war has internally displaced nearly all of the enclave’s 2.1 million residents, posing a major logistical challenge. More than 90 percent of the Strip has been destroyed, leaving Gaza without the infrastructure needed to hold a vote. The population registry has also not been updated because of Israel’s assault.

Abbas was elected to a four-year term in 2005 but has remained in office ever since. He has ruled by decree for more than 15 years, leading to accusations, both within Palestine and abroad, of corruption and abuse of power.

Last month, Abbas announced that presidential elections would be held early next year but did not confirm whether he would seek another term.

“People are holding back their enthusiasm. Even though holding elections, a change in leadership, is the overwhelming demand of Palestinians according to polls,” Odeh added.