Beset by political infighting, split between three territories and distrustful of their institutions, many Palestinians are skeptical that their first national elections in 15 years will bring change — or even happen at all.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday said that parliamentary and presidential elections would be held later this year in a bid to heal long-standing divisions.
His main rival, the Islamist group Hamas, welcomed the move.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The announcement is widely seen as a gesture aimed at pleasing US president-elect Joe Biden, with whom the Palestinians want to reset relations after they reached a low under US President Donald Trump.
A poll last month by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 52 percent of Palestinians think elections held under present conditions would not be fair and free.
If Hamas won, 76 percent thought Fatah — the party led by Abbas — would not accept the result and 58 percent believed Hamas would reject a Fatah victory.
“We have taken an important step, but we still have a long way to go,” veteran West Bank political analyst Hani al-Masri said. “Great obstacles remain and without overcoming these obstacles the whole operation will be doomed to fail.”
Palestinian observers said those hurdles include disagreements within Hamas and Fatah — long the dominant faction in the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization.
It is unclear what mechanism would be put in place to ensure a free election, whether international observers would take part and whether Abbas, aged 85 and in poor health, would run.
The US, Israel and the EU would likely refuse dealings with any Palestinian government that included Hamas, which is designated by the West as a terrorist group.
The EU welcomed the election announcement.
“The EU stands ready to engage with relevant actors to support the electoral process. The EU also calls on Israeli authorities to facilitate the holding of elections across all the Palestinian territory,” the EU’s spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy said in a statement.
The UN also stood ready to support efforts for Palestinians to be able to exercise their democratic rights, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman said, adding that it would “be a crucial step towards Palestinian unity.”
Hamas and Fatah have failed to achieve lasting reconciliation, and previous pledges to hold elections went unfulfilled. Rights groups have accused both of suppressing political opposition.
Abbas said that the parliamentary election would be held on May 22 and the presidential vote on July 31.
He won in 2005, but his term was only meant to last four years.
Still, many ordinary Palestinians remain skeptical.
“They will find a thousand reasons to call it off; Israel, the resistance, power-sharing, anything. I don’t have any hopes,” said one Gaza man, who asked not to be named because he was breaking a COVID-19 lockdown.
Zuheir al-Khatib, a 57-year-old doctor from Bethlehem, was more optimistic.
“This is a 100 percent good decision, merited for over 15 years, if not more. We are supposed to be initiating a state and thus should have democracy,” he said.
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