A Letter Before a Decree

In a letter dated 8 October, the Palestinian Authority’s vice president, Hussein al-Sheikh, told the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, that the legislative elections scheduled for 28 November would be postponed, possibly until September 2027, according to the letter, which was seen by Reuters. “The assessment concluded that the anticipated political, security and economic conditions, on which the scheduling of the legislative elections for 28 November 2026 was based, have not materialized,” it said. Palestinian officials recommended that President Mahmoud Abbas issue a decree moving the vote to the first half of September 2027.

On the same day, officials told the Associated Press after talks in Cairo that the factions had discussed a postponement. Mohammed al-Hindi, deputy secretary-general of Islamic Jihad, told AP that the factions had reached understandings on resuming national dialogue and had agreed to postpone the elections, and that Fatah’s delegation would return to Ramallah to finalise consultations. Fatah’s spokesman, Abdel Fattah Dolah, stopped short of confirming a final decision. He said the timing would be settled through dialogue and national consensus among the factions, and that the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization would discuss a possible delay.

What the decree set

Abbas issued the decree setting the 28 November date on 9 July, Asharq Al-Awsat reported at the time, citing AFP. The vote, in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, is for the 132 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Under the rules published by the Central Elections Commission, candidates may stand only on electoral lists, each with at least 16 and no more than 132 names. Nominations opened on 26 September and run until 13 October, Alhurra reported. On 7 October the commission said it had received a ninth list application, and that receiving an application did not mean a list had been accepted. AP reported that leading factions had not registered slates, with the deadline less than a week away.

The last legislative election was in 2006, when Hamas won a majority of the council’s seats. Israel and Western countries boycotted the government that followed, and Hamas took over Gaza the next year, AP reported. Abbas, elected in 2005, has governed by decree since his presidential term expired in 2009 and formally dissolved the council in 2018, Israel National News reported. He postponed the last scheduled elections, in 2021. A presidential election has been scheduled for the first quarter of 2027, according to an announcement on the president’s website cited by Alhurra.

The reasons given

The letter to France said Palestinian officials had expected improvements from US President Donald Trump’s peace initiative and a UN Security Council resolution, including the deployment of international forces and Palestinian police in Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas and the withdrawal of Israeli troops, according to Reuters. They had also expected US efforts to prevent further annexation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and to curb settler violence, and the release of about $7 billion in Palestinian Authority funds withheld by Israel. The letter said those developments had not happened and that conditions had deteriorated further.

There are practical obstacles as well. The Palestinian Authority said Israel was refusing to let Central Elections Commission teams into the Gaza Strip or Jerusalem, according to the official news agency WAFA, as cited by Alhurra. Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, told AP the elections had been premature and that Hamas would support a postponement if it allowed for dialogue. “Election is part of a democratic process, and it has to be built on a solid Palestinian-Palestinian dialogue to see how can we proceed forward in this conflict, and how to manage our internal disputes, and to offer, or how to present the Palestinians to the world with a united leadership, with a united vision,” he said.

The politics had also shifted. Weeks before the Cairo talks, Hamas and Islamic Jihad joined forces with Mohammed Dahlan, a former Fatah security chief living in exile, in a pact widely read as a challenge to Abbas, who is 90, Alhurra reported, citing AP.

The governments that asked for a vote

Countries that back the Palestinian Authority have pushed for elections as part of broader reforms, and failing to hold them could strain its relations with the donors that help fund it, AP reported. Abbas had committed to legislative and presidential elections in communications with President Emmanuel Macron and the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, Israel National News reported. On Thursday the French foreign ministry spokesman, Pascal Confavreux, repeated France’s position that the elections should go ahead. “These elections will enable the Palestinian leadership to champion its people’s legitimate aspirations with renewed legitimacy, while preserving the two-state solution,” he said. The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, told al-Sheikh in a call that the bloc was prepared to send an election observation mission, Alhurra reported.

Not every faction agrees with a delay. Helmi al-Araj, a political bureau member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, told AP, according to Alhurra: “Postponing the elections would cost the Palestinian Authority what remains of its credibility with its people and with the international community.”

The 28 November date was set by decree, and none of the reports cited here describes a new decree replacing it. Until one is issued, the postponement exists as a letter to Paris, a recommendation to Abbas and an understanding reached in Cairo, while the commission’s nomination period remains open until Tuesday.

Sources

The letter, its date, its recipient, its reasoning and the September 2027 recommendation are from Reuters, which saw the letter. Abbas’s rule by decree, the dissolution of the council, his commitments to Macron and Mohammed bin Salman and Confavreux’s remarks are from Israel National News, which summarised the Reuters report; the commitments and Confavreux’s remarks also appear in Reuters. No decree changing the date had been reported when this was published. The Cairo talks and the remarks of al-Hindi, Dolah and Naim, the 28 November date, the state of list registration, the 2006 result and its aftermath and the position of donor countries are from the Associated Press, as published by Australian Associated Press. The nomination period, the presidential election timetable, the WAFA report, the Dahlan pact, Kallas’s offer, the 2021 postponement and al-Araj’s remarks are from Alhurra. The date of the decree is from Asharq Al-Awsat, citing AFP. The list rules and the ninth list application are from the Central Elections Commission, in Arabic.