Palestinian President Delays Elections Until September 2027: Why?
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has announced that legislative elections will be postponed until September 2027, confirming widespread speculation that the vote would be delayed again.
The legislative election, the first since 2006, had been scheduled for 28 November this year, while the presidential election was expected to take place in early 2027. The international community has strongly urged the Palestinians to hold elections.
Abbas made the decision in a new decree, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported, according to AFP on Monday (12 October 2026). Both elections — legislative and presidential — will now be held on 11 September 2027.
In his decree, Abbas blamed unspecified “obstacles” on the Israeli side.
In a separate statement, the Palestinian presidency said the delay was due to “obstacles arising from Israeli measures… as well as the need to create adequate political and security conditions and conditions on the ground”.
Israel, which is also due to hold an election on 27 October, strongly condemned Abbas, calling him a “corrupt dictator” over the postponement.
Abbas’s decision drew criticism from Palestinians. Abu Amin Joudeh, a refugee from Gaza, said Palestinians wanted to vote and choose their representatives.
“We know the situation here is difficult because of the war and all the destruction, but how long will the elections keep being postponed?” asked Joudeh, who now lives in Deir al-Balah, in the Gaza Strip.
Israel denies obstructing the Palestinian election process
This week, the Palestinian Authority, based in Ramallah in the West Bank, said Israel had refused to grant Palestinian election officials access to East Jerusalem or Gaza ahead of the legislative vote.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar denied that Israel was obstructing the election process.
“Abbas’s attempt to drag Israel into this matter by falsely claiming that Israel is preventing the elections is yet another ridiculous lie, designed to evade responsibility and accountability,” Saar said in a statement on social media platform X.
Meanwhile, a source told AFP that Palestinian factions, including Abbas’s Fatah and its longtime rival Hamas, which controls Gaza, had agreed to the postponement at a meeting in Cairo, Egypt, on Wednesday (7 October).
Holding elections is part of the reforms demanded of the Palestinian Authority by the international community, including the European Union. The last legislative elections in the Palestinian territories were held in 2006, when Hamas defeated Fatah, which had dominated the Palestinian Authority.
The divisions that followed triggered a series of clashes between the factions. Hamas eventually seized control of the Gaza Strip, leaving it politically separated from the West Bank, which is controlled by Fatah.
As a result, the Palestinian Legislative Council, which serves as the Palestinian Authority’s parliament, has not met since 2007.
Abbas won the last Palestinian presidential election in 2005, and his term was supposed to end in 2009. He has continued to govern through the issuance of decrees.