Abbas Postpones Palestinian Elections to September 2027
The Palestinian leader scrapped this year’s legislative election timetable and announced a new date for both parliamentary and presidential voting.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas cancelled the legislative election scheduled for November 28, 2026, and set September 11, 2027, for simultaneous presidential and legislative elections, according to a decree reported by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA on October 10.
The decision means the promised November vote will not take place on its original timetable. It also sets a new date rather than announcing that national elections have been abandoned indefinitely.
The decree replaces the November vote
WAFA’s account says the new decree cancels the earlier decree calling the legislative election. The Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee approved the postponement and the plan to hold the two national votes together.
Abbas’s decree cited Israeli measures and deteriorating conditions as obstacles to organising the election. Those are the presidency’s stated reasons, not an independently established explanation of every factor behind the decision.
The decree referred to restrictions affecting preparations in Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem, as well as the security and humanitarian situation in Gaza. Reuters reported that it also cited difficulties involving access for election staff and international observers.
Israel rejects being blamed
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar rejected Abbas’s explanation in an October 10 post on X, reported by Reuters and The Times of Israel. He accused Abbas of using allegations against Israel to avoid responsibility and accountability for another delay.
The dispute is therefore about more than a replacement date. The Palestinian presidency presents the postponement as a response to conditions preventing a credible vote; Israel’s foreign minister argues that blaming Israel conceals the leadership’s own responsibility.
Reuters had reported a day earlier that Palestinian Vice President Hussein Al Sheikh informed France of a likely postponement in a letter dated October 8. The public decree formalised a delay that was already being discussed with foreign partners.
Two decades without renewed national mandates
The last Palestinian presidential election took place in 2005 and the last legislative election in 2006. Hamas won the legislative vote and seized control of Gaza in 2007, driving out forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority. The political division between Gaza and the PA followed.
Abbas remained in office after his presidential mandate expired in 2009. Another planned round of national elections was postponed in 2021. The repeated delays have left national leadership without a renewed electoral mandate for more than two decades.
Local elections are a separate process. Reuters reported municipal voting in April 2026, including in Deir al-Balah in Gaza, but those polls did not renew the presidency or the Palestinian Legislative Council.
The September 2027 date is now the announced national timetable. Whether preparations proceed on that schedule will depend on subsequent decisions and implementation; the decree itself is evidence of a new date, not proof that the votes will take place.
