Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas has ordered elections for the Palestinian National Council — the parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organization — setting a Nov. 1 vote that would, for the first time, select members by direct popular ballot.
The decree, reported by the PA’s official news agency Wafa, marks a rare attempt to inject electoral legitimacy into one of several PLO-linked bodies that have largely sat idle under Abbas’ long rule. Previous iterations of the council were filled through appointment or internal co-option, rather than a public vote.
“Elections will be held wherever possible, both inside and outside Palestine, to ensure the broadest possible participation of the Palestinian people wherever they reside,” Abbas said in the decree, underscoring the PLO’s claim to represent Palestinians worldwide.
The move comes after years of stalled or aborted election pledges by Abbas, who serves simultaneously as president of both the Palestinian Authority and the PLO. While he has repeatedly announced elections for institutions under his control, votes have often been delayed or scrapped outright, citing security concerns, Israeli restrictions or political divisions.
Even if the November election proceeds as planned, the practical impact of a newly elected National Council remains uncertain. The PNC is rarely convened by Abbas; its last full session took place in 2018. The last council election, held in 2006, was limited in scope and not open to all eligible voters.
Formally, the PNC is the legislative body of the PLO. In practice, its most consequential function is to elect the organization’s Executive Committee — the real center of decision-making power within the PLO. Abbas chairs that body and exerts tight control over its composition.
The announcement also highlights the fragmented state of Palestinian governance. The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank and provides civil services, was intended as a temporary structure under the Oslo Accords. Its own legislature, the Palestinian Legislative Council, has not convened since 2007, when violent and political splits between Abbas’ Fatah movement and Hamas rendered the body inoperative.
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are not members of the PLO and are not represented in the National Council, a limitation that undercuts the claim of comprehensive representation, particularly in Gaza.
Analysts say the timing of the PNC election decree is less about reviving parliamentary life and more about managing an increasingly delicate political succession. Abbas, now in his late 80s, has faced mounting pressure — internally and from international partners — to clarify the future leadership structure of the Palestinian movement.
That pressure is expected to crystallize in May, when Fatah holds its eighth General Conference. The gathering will include elections for the party’s powerful Central Committee, a body stacked with Abbas loyalists and aspiring successors. Many of those figures are also positioned to move into senior roles within the PLO Executive Committee, giving the Fatah vote outsized importance in shaping post-Abbas power dynamics.
Still, the announcement of a direct election — even for a body with limited operational relevance — allows Abbas to project movement after years of institutional paralysis. It also offers a counterpoint to critics who argue that Palestinian leadership lacks democratic legitimacy, particularly after nearly two decades without comprehensive national elections.
Whether elections can actually be held “wherever possible,” as Abbas pledged, remains an open question. Organizing voting across the West Bank, Gaza and diaspora communities would require coordination with Israel and host countries, and could quickly collide with political and logistical realities that have derailed past efforts.
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״Still, the announcement of a direct election — even for a body with limited operational relevance — allows Abbas to project movement after years of institutional paralysis.״
In other words, to pretend he is doing something meaningful when he really isn’t.
“Organizing voting across the West Bank, Gaza and diaspora communities would require coordination with Israel and host countries, and could quickly collide with political and logistical realities that have derailed past efforts.”
IOW, deflecting responsibility from himself and his corrupt cronies onto his enemy Israel.
Classic, textbook moves from the old banana republic kleptocracy playbook.