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 decrees.
“President Mahmoud Abbas announced that presidential elections will be held in early 2027,” the presidency said in a statement. The leader also issued a decree introducing changes to electoral procedures.
In a separate statement, Abbas emphasised he was “fully prepared to organise the Palestinian National Council elections scheduled for November, which include the general legislative elections in the homeland and elections abroad”.
The Palestinian National Council (PNC) is the parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which has members from the Palestinian territories and abroad.
The last legislative elections in the Palestinian territories were held in 2006, when Hamas won, defeating Abbas’ Fatah party, which had previously dominated Palestinian politics.
As a result, the Palestinian Legislative Council, which is the parliament of Abbas’ Palestinian Authority, has not met since 2007.
Holding elections is part of the reforms demanded by the international community, which supports the Palestinian Authority financially.
Palestinian legal researcher Mahmud Al-Afranji said there was both political will and international pressure on the Palestinian Authority to hold the elections. But he told AFP that a lack of guarantees that elections would be held in occupied east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip remained “an obstacle to holding the legislative elections”.
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 east Jerusalem, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
In April, Palestinians went to the polls to elect municipal council heads in the occupied West Bank, in the first vote since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.
With no presidential or legislative elections held since 2006, voting for local councils had become one of the last remaining democratic mechanisms under the PA.
Palestinian city and village councils are responsible for essential services such as water, sanitation and local infrastructure, but they do not have legislative authority.
The European Union hailed the recent municipal vote as an “important step towards broader democratisation and strengthened local governance… in line with the ongoing reforms process”. (AFP)