The Japan Times - Abbas postpones Palestinian legislative elections to September 2027

The first legislative elections since 2006, which the international community has strongly advocated for, had been scheduled for November 28, with a presidential election expected in early 2027.

But both elections will now be held on September 11, 2027, Abbas said in a decree, blaming Israeli "obstacles", according to the Palestinian official news agency Wafa.

Israel, which will hold its own elections on October 27, had blasted Abbas as a "corrupt dictator" over the postponement.

Abbas's office, in a statement published by Wafa, blamed the delay on "obstacles imposed by Israeli measures... as well as the need to create appropriate political, security and on-the-ground conditions".

Abu Amin Joudeh, a displaced man living in the central Gaza city of Deir el-Balah, said Palestinians wanted to vote for their representatives.

"We know things are difficult here because of the war and all the destruction, but how long will the elections continue to be postponed?" said the 40-year-old.

This week, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority said Israel refused to allow Palestinian election officials access to east Jerusalem or Gaza ahead of the legislative elections.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Friday had denied Israel was obstructing the process.

"(Abbas's) attempt to drag Israel into this, falsely claiming that Israel imposed obstacles to holding elections, is yet another ridiculous lie designed to evade responsibility and accountability," Saar said on X.

Palestinian factions including Abbas's Fatah party and its longtime Islamist rival Hamas had agreed to recommend the elections be postponed at a meeting in Cairo on Wednesday, a source who was present told AFP.

Mohammed Dahlan, head of a splinter group from Abbas's Fatah party, called the delay a "crime against democracy".

"Abbas and the circle of self-serving beneficiaries around him have turned the institutions of the Palestinian Authority into a private fiefdom," Dahlan, a Gaza native based in the United Arab Emirates, said in a statement.

- 'Fear of elections' -

Esmat Mansour, a journalist and former official for the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), a leftist party, suggested that Israeli restrictions had been known at the time the elections were initially scheduled and were not the only explanation for the delay.

"The only thing that could explain this delay is your fear of elections. You are afraid of holding elections. You do not want people to have a say," Mansour said in a Facebook video addressing other Palestinian factions.

But Palestinian analyst Ghassan al-Khatib disagreed, telling AFP he never expected there to be a vote because "Israel is making conditions that are not conducive to elections".

"I don't think that the internal Palestinian politics are the reason for the postponement," the former Palestinian Authority minister said, pointing to the devastation and ongoing bloodshed in Gaza, as well as Israeli military operations and settler violence in the West Bank.

East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967 before annexing it, also hosts a large Palestinian population that the PA says should vote in elections, but it accuses Israel of refusing to allow them to organise it.

Holding polls is part of the reforms demanded by the international community, including the European Union, for the Palestinian Authority.

The last legislative elections in the Palestinian territories were in 2006, when Islamist movement Hamas defeated Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority.

The ensuing rift set off a round of factional fighting with Hamas later seizing power in the Gaza Strip, creating a divide with Fatah in the West Bank.

As a result, the Palestinian Legislative Council, which is the PA's parliament, has not met since 2007.

Abbas won the last Palestinian presidential election in 2005, and his term should have expired in 2009, but he has since ruled by decree.

H.Hayashi--JT