Abbas and Palestinian Authority Announces First Law-Making Election In More Than 20 Years

On July 9th, 2026, Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, an organization that governs West Bank of Palestine, a region in Palestine, announced its first law-making election in more than 20 years, set for November 28. In this law-making election, people are to choose lawmakers to a parliament who will choose the leader of the country. This year, the election requires people from West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem to vote, and was scheduled to convince US, European, and Arabian nations that they are improving their government. This is because the country has been accused of corruption, and the US said that the only way for Palestine to earn back their privelege of ruling Gaza is to fire bad leaders and do what they can to prove they can be trusted again.

However, some people question if the election will actually happen since Abbas scheduled a similar election 5 years ago and suddenly canceled it when his leadership position was being threatened.

“We need elections, and we would love for the opportunity to vote,” said 41-year-old Mahzouz Shalaldeh, a village resident in the Hebron area in southern West Bank. “But I just can’t see them actually taking place.”

Abbas’s former adviser Ghaith al-Omari also said, “Abbas feels that by running these elections, there will be an image of reform. But there’s a lot of skepticism, because we’ve experienced this before.”

On the bright side, Ghaith al-Omari then said, Abbas might feel more comfortable taking charge of the election because he banned his rivals Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad from running. Unfortunately for him, he could still face criticism from his own party. For example, he was accused for favoritism and holding secret meetings when he promoted his family member to a higher position. On top of that, when Palestinians lost an election in 2006 to Hamas, it led to a year-and-a-half of tension regarding ruling power, followed by a short civil war in a coastal region of the Gaza Strip, which ended in June 2007. Hamas won again and banned Abbas from ruling the Gaza Strip, leaving him with only the West Bank to govern. Fortunately for Palestinians, the Central Elections Commission of the Palestinian Authority has already planned out ways for them to vote.