World
Abbas declares first Palestinian legislative elections since 2006 to be held Nov. 28
RAMALLAH — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree on Thursday setting legislative elections for November 28, 2026, which, if they take place, would mark the first such vote in two decades.
The last legislative elections in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza were held in 2006, when Hamas won, defeating Abbas’s Fatah party, which had previously dominated Palestinian politics.
As a result, the Palestinian Legislative Council, which is the parliament of Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, has not met since 2007.
“The presidential decree calls on the Palestinian people in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to participate in free and direct legislative elections to elect members of the Palestinian Legislative Council on the date specified,” the official Wafa news agency reported, citing the decree.
Holding elections is part of the reforms demanded by the international community, including the European Union, which supports the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority financially.
Abbas, 90, won the last Palestinian presidential election in 2005 with a mandate of four years, meaning his term should have expired in 2009.
However, his term was extended and no presidential election has been held since, with Abbas ruling by presidential decree, facing criticism at home and abroad.
Ghassan Khatib, a political science professor at Birzeit University, said he believed Abbas was now serious about holding elections for both domestic and international reasons.
“There is a feeling among everyone that Palestinian legitimacy has eroded because of how long it has been since elections were held,” Khatib told AFP, describing a “gap between the public and the leadership and a need to ‘renew the blood’” at the top.
“The absence of a legislative council for such a long time has caused significant damage to the political system,” he added.
The PA has faced widespread criticism over corruption, stagnation and declining legitimacy, with donors increasingly tying their financial and diplomatic support to reform, particularly of local governance.
Logistical challenges
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 Israel-annexed East Jerusalem.
In April, Palestinians went to the polls to elect municipal council heads in the West Bank, in the first vote since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.
Khatib said the main obstacle for elections would be logistical challenges arising from Israeli measures in the Gaza Strip, as well as in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Under the October 2025 US-brokered ceasefire, a technocratic committee has been formed to govern Gaza in place of Hamas, but it has yet to enter the Palestinian territory. Hamas announced on Monday that it would dissolve its governing administration in Gaza in preparation for the eventual transfer of authority to the technocratic committee.
Khatib added that the international community had a responsibility to “pressure Israel to provide an appropriate environment, or at least to refrain from measures that would hinder these elections.”
“Israel seeks to rid itself of the Palestinian Authority, and since elections would restore strength and legitimacy to the Authority, this runs counter to what Israel is aiming for,” he said.
He added that he expected Israel “to obstruct the holding of these elections in various ways.”
In June, Abbas announced that presidential elections would be held in early 2027, without saying if he would run.
Khatib said he doubted the legislative elections would produce major political change, and considered it unlikely that Fatah’s rival Hamas would achieve significant gains.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
