The leader of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, 90, announced Monday June 15 that a presidential election would be held in early 2027 and legislative elections next November, his office indicated, without specifying whether he would be a candidate to succeed him.
Mohamad Abbas was elected in early 2005 after the death of the first president of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat. His term was supposed to last four years but no presidential election has been held since. The leader also governs by decree, which has earned him criticism both domestically and internationally. “President Mahmoud Abbas announced that the presidential election would take place at the beginning of 2027,” according to a press release from the presidency.
The leader also issued a decree on a change in electoral processes. In another presidential statement, Mahmoud Abbas stressed that he was “fully prepared to organize the Palestinian National Council elections scheduled for November, which include general legislative elections in the Palestinian territories as well as elections abroad.”
The Palestinian National Council (PNC) is the parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Its members come from the Palestinian territories and the diaspora.
Reforms demanded by the international community
The last legislative elections in the Palestinian territories took place in 2006. The Islamist movement Hamas won them, defeating the Fatah movement of Mahmoud Abbas, which previously dominated Palestinian political life. As a result, the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), the parliament of the Palestinian Authority, has not met since 2007.
The organization of elections is part of the reforms demanded by the international community, which financially supports the Palestinian Authority. However, he indicated that the absence of guarantees allowing the holding of the vote in East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip remained “an obstacle to the organization of the legislative elections”.
In 2021, Mahmoud Abbas announced legislative and presidential elections to be held respectively in May and July of that year but they were then postponed indefinitely due to the absence of guarantees allowing voting in East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967.
Last April, Palestinians were called to the polls to elect the presidents of municipal councils in the West Bank, in the first vote held since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.
