Palestinian leader Abbas announces presidential election in early 2027

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has issued a decree calling for presidential elections in early 2027 and for legislative elections to be held in November of this year, official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, without saying if he would run.

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, courting criticism at home and abroad.

"President Mahmoud Abbas announced that presidential elections will be held in early 2027," Wafa said, citing a statement from the presidency.

The nonagenarian leader's decree also calls for legislative elections to take place in November of this year, it added.

In his decree, 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 over 700 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 reporters 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.

Agence France-Presse