Ramallah, MINA – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has delayed next month’s legislative elections until September 11, 2027, setting a simultaneous presidential vote for the same date.
Abbas’s decree cited “obstacles posed by Israeli measures” and the need to establish suitable political, security, and on-the-ground conditions for “free, fair and inclusive elections,” the WAFA news agency reported on Saturday.
The decree said Israeli military attacks, settlement expansion, settler violence, and movement restrictions in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, along with Israel’s continued withholding of Palestinian tax revenues, created challenges to preparing for and holding elections this November.
In Gaza, the decree pointed to “exceptional security and humanitarian conditions,” the incomplete withdrawal of Israeli forces, the lack of progress in reconstruction, and the failure to implement arrangements for deploying international stabilization forces and police. Israeli restrictions on access for election commission staff and international observers to Gaza and east Jerusalem also complicated preparations, the decree said.
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The decision to postpone elections followed consultations with Palestinian factions and national figures.[]
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
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