Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has postponed Palestinian legislative elections once again, cancelling a November 28, 2026 parliamentary vote and setting September 11, 2027 as the new date for simultaneous presidential and legislative elections, according to a presidential decree reported by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA on Saturday.
What the decree says
The decree cancels the legislative council elections that had been scheduled for November 28, 2026, and calls presidential and legislative elections for September 11, 2027. It followed a resolution by the PLO Executive Committee and consultations with Palestinian factions, and was framed as allowing time for a "comprehensive Palestinian national dialogue to strengthen unity." The decree urged Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza to take part in what it described as "free, fair and inclusive elections."
Why the vote was delayed
The decree cited "obstacles posed by Israeli measures": military attacks, settlement expansion, settler violence, movement restrictions in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, and Israel's continued withholding of Palestinian tax revenues. In Gaza, it pointed to "exceptional security and humanitarian conditions," the incomplete Israeli withdrawal, stalled reconstruction, and the failure to implement arrangements for deploying international stabilisation forces and police. It also cited Israeli restrictions on access for election-commission staff and international observers to Gaza and East Jerusalem.
A vote twenty years in the making
Palestinians have not held legislative or presidential elections since 2005–06. Abbas won the presidency in 2005; Hamas won the 2006 legislative vote, then seized control of Gaza in 2007, ousting Abbas's loyalists. The Palestinian Legislative Council has not met since 2007, and Abbas has governed by decree since his presidential mandate expired in 2009. The Palestinian Authority did hold municipal elections in April in the West Bank and in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza — the first election held in Gaza since 2006.
Reactions
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar rejected the decree's explanation, calling Abbas a "corrupt dictator" and accusing him of "fooling the international community." Palestinian factions including Fatah and Hamas had agreed at a Cairo meeting on Wednesday to recommend postponing the elections, according to an AFP source present. In Gaza, displaced resident Abu Amin Joudeh told AFP: "how long will the elections continue to be postponed?" Notably, Israel itself holds elections on October 27, 2026.
Whether September 2027 breaks a two-decade pattern of postponement — or becomes another date that slips — will depend on conditions in the West Bank and Gaza that remain far from settled.
Watch: FRANCE 24 reports on Abbas postponing the Palestinian elections to September 2027 — France 24's Jerusalem correspondent Noga Tarnopolsky on the decree and what it means for the cancelled November vote.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Long Road Ahead B (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sources
- Reuters — Abbas postpones Palestinian elections, sets presidential poll for September 2027
- AP — Mahmoud Abbas postpones Palestinian legislative elections another year
- Islamabad Post — Abbas postpones legislative elections, sets presidential poll for September 2027
- JFeed — Abbas postpones Palestinian elections (decree details and Israeli reaction)