RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday issued a decree cancelling legislative elections scheduled for Nov. 28 and setting simultaneous presidential and legislative elections for Sept. 11, 2027, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
The decree followed a decision by the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee and consultations with Palestinian factions, WAFA said. It cited Israeli military attacks, settlement expansion and settler violence in the West Bank, restrictions on movement, Israel’s withholding of Palestinian clearance revenues, and Israeli restrictions on access for election staff and international observers to Gaza and East Jerusalem.
In Gaza, the decree pointed to “exceptional security and humanitarian conditions,” the failure to deploy international stabilization and police forces under U.N. Security Council Resolution 2803, the lack of progress on reconstruction and the incomplete withdrawal of Israeli forces, according to WAFA. It said the delay would also allow a comprehensive national dialogue to strengthen Palestinian unity.
The last Palestinian Legislative Council election, in 2006, was won by Hamas, leading to the rift between the group and Abbas’s Fatah party, The National reported. Abbas, elected in 2005, has overstayed his term by 17 years and rules by decree, the paper said, and faction sources told it the delay was mainly linked to holding a national dialogue in Egypt. An August poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 79 percent of respondents wanted him to resign.
The decree came on the first anniversary of the U.S.-backed Gaza ceasefire, which took effect on Oct. 10 last year. Gaza’s Health Ministry said Saturday that at least 1,481 Palestinians have been killed since then, and medical sources said Israeli attacks killed at least seven people across Gaza on Saturday, including an 8-year-old girl, Al Jazeera reported.
Sources: WAFA, The National, Reuters (via The Jerusalem Post), Al Jazeera
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