Mahmoud Abbas was elected President of the Palestinian Authority (PA) on 9 January 2005. His term of office was four years. In September 2026, he remains in power, but has now ‘finally’ announced parliamentary elections for 28 November 2026 and a presidential election in 2027.
Only time will tell. This is not the first time he has promised elections.
Muhammed did not hold elections
After Abbas’s term of office formally expired, presidential elections were promised for 2009–2010, but Fatah and Hamas had fallen out and they were postponed. After the warring factions ‘reconciled’, elections were agreed for April and October 2014. They were postponed indefinitely. Following yet another reconciliation agreement in October 2017, elections were promised by the end of 2018. They were postponed. On 15 January 2021, Abbas issued a decree calling for parliamentary elections on 22 May and presidential elections on 31 July 2021. They were postponed indefinitely; this time he blamed the Jews, but there were also rumours of internal divisions within Fatah and fears of defeat.
The Palestinians’ most recent parliamentary elections to date were held in 2006, when Hamas defeated Abbas’s Fatah. In 2007, the two factions began firing on one another. Hamas took control of Gaza, whilst Fatah and the PA retained Judea and Samaria (the so-called ‘West Bank’). Since then, the Arab population in the Jewish heartlands has in practice been divided, whilst the form of government has been reduced to Islamic democracy (Muhammad did not hold elections).
Pay for slay
Abbas’s and the PA’s regime in Judea and Samaria is deeply corrupt; freedom of expression is suppressed; opposition figures either do not exist or are literally underground; and critics are behind bars. Compared with Hamas’s Islamist terror regime in Gaza, however, this is still regarded as a liberal democracy.
For the UN, the EU, the WEF, Støre and the rest of the socialist world, this is still good enough. To them, Abbas is the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and they continue to fund him and his ‘pay-for-slay’ programme.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is in the 22nd year of his four-year term, has just been denied a visa to the US to speak at the UN and spew his bigoted lies. This is absolutely the right move by President Trump @POTUS!
Abbas is a corrupt supporter of terrorism who pays… pic.twitter.com/yL8NnVsnIy
— Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) 17 September 2026
Quite a bunch
Whether Abbas keeps his promise, releases selected rivals from prison and holds parliamentary elections on 28 November remains to be seen. Even his own Arab supporters in Judea and Samaria view the promise with scepticism; the mistrust runs deep. Opinion polls have repeatedly shown that a large majority want him out of the picture. On the other hand, it is not certain that the alternatives are much better.
The imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti is said to be the most popular Palestinian politician. In Cairo, Hamas, the ‘Democratic Reform Bloc’, Islamic Jihad, the PFLP and others are discussing forming a joint list to oppose Abbas’s Fatah. Hamas has been somewhat discredited since 7 October 2023 and is considering keeping a low profile by joining a joint list rather than standing under its own name.
