LONDON: The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, on Thursday ratified a voting system for the Palestinian National Council election scheduled for November.
It will be the first time that members of the council, which was established in 1964 and is the Palestinian parliament, have been chosen by a direct public vote.
Candidates will contest 200 seats in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. A further 150 seats have been designated for members who will represent Palestinian refugees in other countries, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
The Palestinian National Council has served as the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization since before, and following, the establishment of the Palestinian Authority as part of the 1993 Oslo Accord peace deal with Israel.
The council was established in May 1964, and a few days later it announced the formation of the PLO. No public elections have ever been held; instead, Palestinian factions appointed members of the council based on specific quotas. Still, it is considered comprehensive in its representation of Palestinians as its responsibilities include refugees and the wider diaspora.
The Palestinian Authority has been under pressure to reform its own political systems as it faces challenges arising from aggressive Israeli policies in the West Bank, over which it has partial control, as well as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by the war between Israel and Hamas that began in late 2023.
The last election of any kind in the Palestinian territories was a vote in 2006 for members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, the legislature of the Palestinian Authority, in which Hamas secured a surprise victory over their rival, Fatah. A new election for the Legislative Council has yet to be announced.
In 2021, Abbas postponed previous plans for a parliamentary vote after Israeli authorities refused to allow the election to take place in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinian Authority considers its capital.
The presidency said the new electoral system aims to strengthen the structure of the PLO and restore the legitimacy of its institutions.
