RAMALLAH — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree on Thursday setting legislative elections for November 28, 2026, which, if they take place, would mark the first such vote in two decades.

The last legislative elections in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza were held in 2006, when Hamas won, defeating Abbas’s Fatah party, which had previously dominated Palestinian politics.

As a result, the Palestinian Legislative Council, which is the parliament of Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, has not met since 2007.

“The presidential decree calls on the Palestinian people in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to participate in free and direct legislative elections to elect members of the Palestinian Legislative Council on the date specified,” the official Wafa news agency reported, citing the decree.

Holding elections is part of the reforms demanded by the international community, including the European Union, which supports the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority financially.

Abbas, 90, won the last Palestinian presidential election in 2005 with a mandate of four years, meaning his term should have expired in 2009.

However, his term was extended and no presidential election has been held since, with Abbas ruling by presidential decree, facing criticism at home and abroad.

Ghassan Khatib, a political science professor at Birzeit University, said he believed Abbas was now serious about holding elections for both domestic and international reasons.

“There is a feeling among everyone that Palestinian legitimacy has eroded........

© The Times of Israel