Abbas Sets Nov. 28 Date for Palestinian Legislative Elections
LONDON- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has set Nov. 28 as the date for long-awaited legislative elections, paving the way for Palestinians to elect members of the Legislative Council for the first time in nearly two decades.
According to the Palestine News Agency, the vote will be held across the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The parliamentary election will be the first since January 2006, when Hamas won a surprise victory over the rival Fatah movement. The prolonged absence of legislative elections has left the Palestinian political system without a renewed parliamentary mandate for almost 20 years.
Presidential elections are expected to be scheduled during the first quarter of 2027. Abbas, 90, has led the Palestinian Authority since the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004 and was elected president in 2005 for a four-year term that formally expired in 2009.
The election announcement comes as the Palestinian Authority faces mounting calls to reform its political institutions while confronting growing challenges in the occupied West Bank and the continuing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip stemming from the war between Israel and Hamas that began in late 2023.
The Palestinian Authority exercises partial administrative control in parts of the occupied West Bank, while the political divide between Fatah and Hamas has persisted since the latter took control of Gaza following the 2006 legislative elections.
In April, Palestinians voted in municipal elections covering the West Bank and one governorate in the Gaza Strip, although turnout was reported to be low.
Previous efforts to hold parliamentary elections were abandoned in 2021 after Abbas postponed the vote, saying Israeli authorities had refused to permit voting in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinian Authority regards as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
The planned Nov. 28 vote is expected to include polling in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to the official announcement.
