Abbas sets Nov. 28 for first Palestinian legislative elections in 20 years
Palestinians across the occupied territories are expected to vote for a new legislature in November, with presidential elections planned in early 2027
RAMALLAH, Palestine (MNTV) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has announced Nov. 28 as the date for long-awaited legislative elections, marking the first parliamentary vote for Palestinians in nearly two decades.
According to the official Palestine News Agency, the elections are scheduled to take place across the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The vote will elect members of the Palestinian Legislative Council for the first time since January 2006, when Hamas won a surprise parliamentary victory over the rival Fatah movement, reshaping the Palestinian political landscape.
Presidential elections are expected to follow during the first quarter of 2027. Abbas, who has led the Palestinian Authority since the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004, was last elected president in 2005. His four-year term officially expired in 2009, although no subsequent presidential election has been held.
The announcement comes as the Palestinian Authority faces mounting domestic and international calls to reform its political institutions.
It is also confronting growing pressure from Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank, where it exercises limited self-rule, and the continuing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip amid the Israel-Hamas war that began in late 2023.
Earlier this year, Palestinians held municipal elections in the West Bank and one governorate in Gaza, though voter participation remained low.
A previous attempt to hold parliamentary elections in 2021 was suspended after Israeli authorities declined to permit voting in East Jerusalem, an area claimed by the Palestinian Authority as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
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