What to Know About Palestinian Authority’s Scheduled Elections

Due to ongoing Israeli military occupation and settlement expansion, however, the PA has remained as an administrative body with limited sovereignty. The PA has nominal authority over the Palestinian Territories, but in reality it exercises only partial civil control over parts of the West Bank. It has not controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 when Hamas took control. Hamas defeated Abbas’s dominant Fatah party in the last legislative elections in 2006. Since then, the Palestinian Legislative Council, the parliament of the Palestinian Authority, has largely been defunct, and was formally dissolved in 2018.

The international community has called for governance reforms within the PA, especially in view of paving the way for Palestinian statehood. The E.U., which provides significant financial support to the PA, has consistently called for institutional reforms and supported Palestinian elections. Last June, Abbas also sent French President Emmanuel Macron a letter committing to holding elections under international supervision, which Macron said demonstrated a willingness to advance a two-state solution. In response to Abbas’s commitments, France recognized the State of Palestine in September. Several other Western countries, including the U.K., Canada, and Australia, also recognized a Palestinian state in September.