Palestinian factions discuss delaying their first legislative elections in 20 years
Abbas's Fatah says no final decision has been made on November 28 vote; needs to consult with other factions and PLO executive committee; Islamic Jihad says elections to be delayed
BEIRUT (AP) — Palestinian factions are discussing postponing legislative elections that had been planned for November, officials said Thursday.
A top official with the Gaza-based Islamic Jihad terror group said the factions had reached an agreement to delay the vote, which is facing significant logistical issues in East Jerusalem and war-ravaged Gaza, as well as the long history of internal feuding among the Palestinians.
A spokesperson for Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, stopped short of confirming that a final decision had been reached.
But he said the election timing will be part of a “dialogue and national consensus” among the factions and that the potential postponement will be discussed by the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Abbas has set November 28 as the date of parliamentary elections in Gaza and the West Bank. If the elections proceeded on schedule, they would be the first polls in 20 years. Elections have been repeatedly postponed and canceled in that time.
The legislative polls face major logistical challenges arising from conditions in the Gaza Strip, which is split into zones controlled by Israel and the Hamas terror group, as well as in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which is largely controlled by Israel. Israel views East Jerusalem as part of its undivided capital, but the Palestinians aspire for it to be the capital of a future Palestinian state and much of the world considers it occupied.
Potential postponement comes after Cairo meetings
Islamic Jihad deputy secretary-general Mohammed al-Hindi said in a statement to The Associated Press that after meeting in Cairo, the factions “have reached understandings regarding the resumption of Palestinian national dialogue and agreed to postpone the upcoming Palestinian elections.”
He said that the Fatah delegation will return to Ramallah to finalize consultations.
Fatah spokesperson Abdel Fattah Dolah said the party wants elections to take place but is engaged in dialogue with the other factions on their timing, in light of calls for their postponement and “the difficult circumstances on the ground facing our people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”
He described the discussions in Cairo as “very positive.”
Logistical and political issues could stall vote
Countries that back the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority have pushed for elections as part of broader reforms. In the past, Palestinian leaders have postponed elections at the eleventh hour, citing challenges including campaigning and voting in East Jerusalem. The logistics of voting in the Gaza Strip are even more complicated.
Failing to hold the elections could strain the Palestinian Authority’s relations with donor countries that help fund it.
The United States, the European Union and Arab states are mounting pressure on the PA and Abbas, 90, who last faced voters in 2005, to implement reforms and hold elections, amid widespread accusations of corruption, political stagnation and the body’s declining legitimacy among Palestinians.
Key logistical issues for holding the vote in Gaza and East Jerusalem remain unresolved.
Israel has refused to allow Palestinian election officials access to Gaza or East Jerusalem ahead of legislative polls, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, increasing concerns that the vote will be postponed.
Neither Israel’s Defense Ministry nor COGAT, its affiliated entity in charge of civilian matters in the West Bank and Gaza, responded to AFP requests for confirmation of the decision to block the officials.
Leading factions have also not registered electoral slates, with the deadline for candidates less than a week away.
Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said the scheduled elections had been premature.
“Election is part of a democratic process, and it has to be built on a solid Palestinian-Palestinian dialogue to see how we can proceed forward in this conflict, and how to manage our internal disputes, and to offer, or how to present the Palestinians to the world with a united leadership, with a united vision,” he said.
Naim said Hamas would support postponing the election if it would allow for such a dialogue to take place.
A crisis of legitimacy for the Palestinian Authority
The Palestinian Authority has gradually lost popularity in Gaza and the West Bank, where many Palestinians see it as ineffective, corrupt and acting as a subcontractor for Israel’s decades-long rule.
Hamas won a majority of seats in the 132-member Palestinian Legislative Council the last time elections were held in early 2006. Israel and Western countries then boycotted its government, fueling months of unrest that led to the Hamas takeover of Gaza the following year. Abbas dissolved the parliament in 2018 and postponed the most recent scheduled elections in 2021.
Not all factions are on board with delaying November’s vote. Helmi Al-Araj, a political bureau member with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small faction within the PLO, said that requiring consensus should not be used as an excuse to postpone elections that could “end rule by decree and by one individual.”
“Postponing the elections would cost the Palestinian Authority what remains of its credibility with its people and with the international community,” Al-Araj said.