Abbas says Palestinian election to be held in 2027 – without setting a date

Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas says the PA will hold its first presidential election in more than 20 years – but declines to set a date for the vote.

By World Israel News Staff

Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas has said a presidential election will be held in 2027, announcing the year for a vote that, if carried out, would be the first Palestinian presidential election since he was elected more than two decades ago.

The announcement was reported by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA as part of a broader decree amending Palestinian election rules.

The measure also set out changes to the Palestinian Legislative Council and said Abbas is expected to issue a decree calling for Legislative Council elections to be held alongside elections for the Palestinian National Council, the parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

WAFA said that Abbas “had also announced that presidential elections would be held in 2027,” but did not report a specific date, timetable or mechanism for the vote.

The announcement comes amid mounting pressure on Abbas, 90, to renew the legitimacy of Palestinian institutions after years without national elections.

Abbas was elected president in January 2005 after the death of Yasser Arafat. His four-year term expired in 2009, but he has remained in office while governing the Palestinian Authority by decree.

The last Palestinian legislative election was held in 2006, when Hamas won a majority.

A year later, Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah forces, leaving Abbas’s Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority governing limited areas of Judea and Samaria, while Hamas ruled Gaza.

Abbas has repeatedly promised elections in the past.

A 2021 plan called for legislative elections in May and a presidential vote in July, but the process was postponed indefinitely after Abbas cited the lack of Israeli approval for voting in predominantly Arab neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem.

Hamas, Fatah rivals, and Palestinian civil society groups accused Abbas at the time of using the Jerusalem dispute to avoid a vote that could weaken Fatah.

The new decree changes several features of the electoral system.

According to WAFA, it increases the Palestinian Legislative Council from 132 seats to 200, lowers the electoral threshold to 1 percent and raises the minimum number of candidates on each electoral list from 16 to 20.

It also requires at least one woman among every three candidates on a list and lowers the minimum age for legislative candidates from 28 to 23.

WAFA said the changes were intended to “enhance political participation and broaden democratic representation.”

The electoral announcement follows Abbas’s move earlier this year to schedule Palestinian National Council elections for November 1, 2026.

According to the WAFA report, those elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council would automatically become representatives from the Palestinian territories in the Palestinian National Council.

Abbas has framed the steps as part of a reform program aimed at improving governance and restoring international confidence in the Palestinian Authority.

At a Fatah conference in Ramallah last month, he said, “We renew our full commitment to continuing work on implementing all the reform measures we pledged… We are ready to hold presidential and legislative elections.”

But skepticism remains high. Abbas was unanimously re-elected as head of Fatah at the same conference, and his son Yasser Abbas won a seat on the Fatah Central Committee, fueling speculation about succession planning inside the movement.

Abbas has become increasingly unpopular and politically weakened, with pollster Khalil Shikaki saying Abbas “has become a liability to his own party, and for the Palestinians as a whole.” Shikaki told AP last year that “His legitimacy was depleted long ago.”