Abbas moves Palestinian elections to September 2027

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has canceled a decree setting a legislative election for November 28, 2026, and scheduled legislative and presidential elections for September 11, 2027. The new decree, issued October 10, moves the planned legislative vote about nine and a half months and pairs it with a presidential contest.

The decree calls on voters in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza to participate. It sets a date for both elections, but does not establish that either contest will ultimately take place on that date.

A new date after more than two decades

The new decree moves the planned legislative vote from November 2026 to September 2027. The earlier presidential decree had set November 28, 2026, for the legislative election alone; Abbas’s October decree cancels that schedule and sets both contests for the same day.

The change extends the period without a newly elected Palestinian legislature. The Central Elections Commission records the last legislative election as January 25, 2006. If the next vote occurs as scheduled, more than 21 years will have passed between legislative elections.

The 2006 election filled a 132-seat Palestinian Legislative Council. The Change and Reform list won 74 seats and Fatah won 45, with the remaining seats going to other lists. Those results describe the council elected then; they do not indicate how voters would choose in a future election.

Competing accounts of election conditions

Abbas’s decree cited obstacles posed by Israeli measures and the need for conditions that would allow elections to be free, fair and inclusive. Reuters reported that the decree also referred to restrictions and security conditions in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza. These are the reasons given in the decree, not independently established findings about access to voting.

The Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee said conditions in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza were not conducive to voting. It also alleged that Israel had barred election materials and international observers from entering Gaza. Those statements are the committee’s assessment and allegation. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar rejected Abbas’s explanation.

Hamas described the postponement as a step in the right direction, according to The Associated Press. Before the decree, a representative of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine had opposed using calls for consensus as a reason to delay elections. That earlier objection does not establish the group’s current position on the new date.

Reuters reported that two Palestinian officials said Fatah and Hamas leaders agreed at a Cairo meeting to postpone the vote. That account concerns leaders of those two groups; it does not establish agreement by all Palestinian factions.

The decree sets September 11, 2027, as the planned date for simultaneous legislative and presidential elections. The immediate change is to the election schedule: the November 2026 legislative date is canceled, and both contests are now planned for the later date.