RAMALLAH: A top Palestinian official on Thursday said legislative elections due to be held in late November won't take place on time, calling for presidential elections first instead.
"There will be no elections... We will proceed to elections after holding a comprehensive Palestinian national dialogue to reach consensus on the mechanisms for conducting them," Fatah secretary-general Jibril Rajoub told reporters in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
Rajoub, from the dominant Fatah party of 90-year-old President Mahmoud Abbas, said holding presidential elections first "would solve a large part of the problem".
"They are easier, less costly and can be held through consensus," he said.
The last legislative elections in the Palestinian territories were held in 2006, when Islamist movement Hamas won. They defeated Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority (PA) in charge of areas of the West Bank. As a result, the Palestinian Legislative Council, which is the PA's parliament, has not met since 2007.
President Abbas stayed on beyond the end of his term in 2009 and has since ruled by decree.
Palestinian legislative elections were due to take place on November 28, just over a month after Israel's general elections. Abbas issued a decree-law in June calling for presidential elections in early 2027.
On Thursday, Rajoub said that, so far, no "serious" lists had been formed to participate in the elections. "If the nomination period arrives and no list comes forward, what will happen?" he added.
The nomination period is scheduled to begin on September 26 and end on October 7.
Fatah rivals including Hamas and the Democratic Reform Current, a Fatah splinter group, have said they aimed to create joint lists for the election.
Holding elections is part of the reforms demanded by the international community, including the European Union, which supports the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority financially.
Abbas had previously called on January 15, 2021 for legislative and presidential elections to be held in May and July of that year, respectively.
The elections were eventually postponed indefinitely due to the lack of guarantees that they could be held in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
Abbas won the last Palestinian presidential election in 2005, and his term should have expired in 2009.
