(SeaPRwire) –
By: Julian Holbrooke
Mahmoud Abbas’s decree calling for Palestinian legislative elections on Nov. 28 is not a sudden burst of democratic conviction. It is a calculated move to shore up a crumbling authority facing existential pressure at home and abroad. The PA has gone two decades without a legislative vote, and Abbas has ruled by decree since his 2005 four-year term expired. Critics have long labeled him authoritarian, and his government’s legitimacy has hit rock bottom across the West Bank and Gaza. This announcement is not a step toward self-determination—it is a survival play.
The official framing of the decree is straightforward. Wafa news agency published the full text, calling on Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza to participate in free, direct legislative elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council. The PA itself was established in the 1990s under the Oslo Accords, a peace deal between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. It was meant to provide five years of self-governance in Palestinian enclaves while permanent status talks proceeded. Those talks never reached a conclusion, and the PA remains an administrative body with limited sovereignty. It exercises only partial civil control over parts of the West Bank, and has no authority in Gaza. The announcement follows months of international and domestic pressure to reaffirm the PA’s legitimacy. It comes on the heels of the October 2025 U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, which revived public discussions of a future Palestinian state. The ceasefire established a technocratic committee to temporarily govern Gaza, though the body has not yet entered the territory. The EU, a major financial backer of the PA, has long pushed for institutional reforms and election support. Last June, Abbas sent a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron committing to internationally supervised elections. Macron framed the pledge as a sign of progress toward a two-state solution. France recognized the State of Palestine in September, joined by the U.K., Canada, and Australia the same month.
The gap between the official announcement and on-the-ground reality is vast. The PA has not controlled Gaza since 2007, when Hamas seized power after defeating Fatah in the 2006 legislative elections. The Palestinian Legislative Council has been largely defunct for years, and was formally dissolved in 2018. Abbas was elected to a four-year presidential term in 2005, but has ruled by decree ever since. Domestic critics have repeatedly accused him of authoritarianism and delaying long-overdue elections for political gain. He announced last month that presidential elections would be held in early 2027, but declined to say if he would seek another term. The U.S., EU, and Arab states have all argued a reformed PA should eventually govern both the West Bank and Gaza as part of a post-war settlement. That demand hangs over every part of this election announcement. Nearly two million Gazans—90% of the strip’s pre-war population—have been displaced since the 2023 war began, according to the UN. Many have been displaced multiple times due to repeated Israeli evacuation orders. More than 90% of Gaza’s infrastructure has been destroyed, per Al Jazeera estimates, leaving almost no functional public buildings to serve as polling stations. Gaza’s population registry was severely disrupted by the war, making accurate voter roll compilation nearly impossible. The April 2026 local elections in Gaza were limited to just Deir al-Balah municipality, with only 70,000 eligible voters and fewer than 16,000 ballots cast. That is a tiny fraction of the strip’s total population, and a warning sign for any national vote. Israeli attacks have continued despite the October ceasefire, with more than 1,000 Gazans killed since Oct. 10, per Gaza’s Health Ministry. West Bank settler violence has hit more than 1,000 incidents this year as of June, roughly six per day, displacing over 2,200 Palestinians, according to the UN. East Jerusalem voting requires explicit Israeli approval, which Israel has not yet granted. The 2021 scheduled legislative and presidential elections were canceled precisely because Israel refused to guarantee East Jerusalem voting access. Hamas has agreed to dissolve its government and hand power to the technocratic ceasefire committee, but key terms of the ceasefire remain unimplemented. Israel has not fully withdrawn its troops from Gaza, Hamas has not disarmed, and the planned International Stabilization Force has not deployed. Both sides have repeatedly accused each other of violating the agreement.
This election will not happen on schedule unless Israel grants East Jerusalem voting access and agrees to full ceasefire enforcement. Abbas’s gambit will either force Western powers to pressure Israel into tangible concessions, or expose the emptiness of recent Palestinian state recognition pledges. The geopolitical pendulum will not swing toward meaningful Palestinian statehood until the PA can prove it can govern both the West Bank and Gaza, and this election announcement is just the first, weakest bargaining chip in that fight.
Author bio: Julian Holbrooke, an international relations analyst and regular contributor to leading European daily newspapers, focuses on Middle East geopolitical dynamics.