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PA’s Abbas says oft-canceled presidential elections to be held in 2027
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has announced that presidential elections will be held in 2027, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported Sunday.
The presidential decree did not provide any specific date for the elections beyond stating the year.
Abbas has canceled elections several times in the past that he had previously announced, and has now remained in power for 20 years, 15 years beyond the original date on which he was due to seek re-election as PA president.
Abbas had previously said that elections would be held one year after the end of the war in Gaza, meaning in October 2026, but did not set a specific date for the presidential vote. It now appears that timeline has changed.
The decree also stated that elections for the Palestinian National Council, the parliament of the PLO, will be held in November 2026.
According to WAFA, the declaration additionally increased the number of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council to 200, lowered the electoral threshold to one percent and required the inclusion of one woman for every three candidates on any list.
Abbas, 90, limits decision-making to his tight inner circle and rarely leaves his headquarters in the city of Ramallah, except to travel abroad.
An October poll by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 80 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza want him to resign.
In May, Abbas’s Fatah party held a three-day conference to elect its highest leadership body for the first time in 10 years — Abbas was re-elected as head of the movement, with his 64-year-old son Yasser Abbas securing a place on its central committee.
Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are under mounting pressure from the United States, the European Union and Arab states to implement reforms and hold elections, amid widespread accusations of corruption, political stagnation, and the body’s declining legitimacy among Palestinians.
The international community also wants the PA to play a key role in eventually running the Gaza Strip again after it was devastated in the war sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of southern Israel.
Israel, however, bitterly opposes the involvement of the PA.
A potential rival to Abbas could be Marwan Barghouti, the former head of Tanzim who is serving five life terms for direct involvement in three terror attacks: a March 2002 shooting attack at the Seafood Market restaurant in Tel Aviv in which three Israelis were killed; the January 2002 killing of Yoela Chen in Givat Ze’ev; and a June 2001 shooting attack near Ma’ale Adumim in which a Greek monk was killed.
Barghouti is considered among the most popular Palestinian politicians and would rival Abbas for leadership were he to be released from prison, opinion polls show. He says he has reformed and no longer supports violent resistance.
Israel refused to release him in the hostage-prisoner release deal that was part of the Gaza ceasefire last year.
Times of Israel staff and agencies contributed to this report.
