RAMALLAH / PNN /
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called for presidential and legislative elections to be held simultaneously on Sept. 11, 2027, postponing legislative polls previously scheduled for Nov. 28, as Palestinian officials cited Israeli restrictions and deteriorating conditions in the occupied territories.
The presidential decree, announced Saturday, followed a decision by the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and consultations with Palestinian factions. It called on the Central Elections Commission to prepare and supervise free, fair and transparent elections in the West Bank, Gaza and occupied East Jerusalem.
The PLO executive committee said conditions had changed significantly since the elections were announced, citing continued Israeli military operations, settlement expansion, settler violence, movement restrictions and Israel's withholding of Palestinian tax revenues.
In Gaza, the committee said the continued presence of Israeli forces, the absence of agreed international stabilization and Palestinian police deployments, and restrictions on election officials and observers posed major obstacles to holding the vote safely.
It also cited attacks on Palestinian communities, land seizures and home demolitions in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, warning that the restrictions threatened voters' ability to participate freely.
The decree described elections as a constitutional obligation and a means of renewing the democratic legitimacy of Palestinian institutions. It also called for comprehensive national dialogue to strengthen Palestinian unity and address obstacles to the electoral process.
Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh accused Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar of misleading public opinion with statements expressing concern about Palestinian democracy and the postponement of the elections.
Al-Sheikh said Israel's policies and continued violence were obstructing Palestinian democratic and national rights.
The PLO executive committee called on the international community to pressure Israel to remove restrictions on voting and campaigning in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. It reiterated that a lasting peace requires ending the Israeli occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
