Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has announced that legislative elections will be held in late November, as his government comes under mounting international pressure to demonstrate its legitimacy. Abbas issued a decree on Thursday declaring the election date for November 28 in all of the Palestinian Territories, including the occupied West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem and Gaza. If the vote goes ahead, it will be the first in 20 years.
The last legislative elections in the Palestinian Territories were held in 2006, when Hamas secured a shock victory. The result triggered a political split with Abbas’s previously dominant Fatah party, culminating in Hamas taking control of Gaza in 2007.
Several issues will need to be resolved before the elections can go ahead. Israel, which has yet to comment publicly on the announcement, would need to allow Palestinians to vote in occupied East Jerusalem. In 2021, Palestinian legislative and presidential elections were cancelled after Israel did not guarantee that voting could be held there.
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