Hamas Rejects Postponement of Palestinian Legislative Elections as Fatah Casts Doubt on 28 November Date

Palestinian factions are locked in a fresh dispute over whether long-delayed legislative elections will go ahead as scheduled, after a senior Fatah official cast doubt on the 28 November date and Hamas responded by demanding the vote be held on time. The exchange has revived a question that has hung over Palestinian politics since the last legislative elections in 2006: whether Palestinians will finally be allowed to choose their representatives, or whether another promised ballot will slip away.

Hamas Rejects Talk of Postponing Palestinian Legislative Elections as Fatah's Rajoub Casts Doubt on 28 November Date

Hamas Insists the Vote Must Go Ahead

Hamas has rejected suggestions that the upcoming Palestinian Legislative Council elections could be postponed, calling for the vote to be held as scheduled and for arrangements to be made to ensure a free and fair electoral process.

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said in a statement on Wednesday, 10 September, that the group was concerned by recent remarks from Palestinian Authority officials raising the possibility that the elections might not take place on time. Qassem called for adherence to the announced electoral timetable and said the necessary political and administrative arrangements should be completed to allow the vote to proceed.

His intervention came after senior Fatah official Jibril Rajoub said this week that he did not believe elections scheduled for 28 November would take place on that date, because the necessary political arrangements and consensus had not yet been finalized. Rajoub's remarks were the clearest signal yet from within Fatah that the timetable could slip, and they drew an unusually direct response from Hamas.

Qassem Accuses Leadership of Partisan Maneuvering

In his statement, Qassem accused the Palestinian leadership of using the election issue to advance partisan interests, arguing that decisions concerning the Palestinian political system should not remain under the control of a single faction. The charge cuts to the heart of the dispute: whether the timing and terms of the vote are being shaped by the interests of one party rather than by a genuine national consensus.

Qassem also criticized the prolonged absence of elections for major Palestinian political institutions, pointing to the lack of presidential and legislative elections for many years and calling for broader electoral participation in Palestinian representative bodies. He urged Palestinian factions to work together to establish guarantees for elections that would encompass the different components of the Palestinian political system.

The language reflects a long-standing Hamas position that any vote must be comprehensive, covering the presidency, the legislature and the institutions of the Palestine Liberation Organization, rather than a partial exercise that leaves the wider political system unreformed.

Two Decades Without a Functioning Legislature

The dispute comes amid renewed debate over reforming Palestinian institutions and holding elections following years of political division between Fatah and Hamas. That division is not an abstraction. It has a precise institutional history, and it is that history that gives the current argument its weight.

The last Palestinian legislative elections were held in 2006, when Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council. The legislature subsequently ceased functioning effectively following the political split between Hamas and Fatah. What followed was not simply a frozen parliament but an entire system of governance conducted without a sitting legislature, without the oversight, debate and legislation that a representative body is meant to provide.

Palestinian legislative and presidential elections were scheduled again in 2021 but were postponed before voting took place. No subsequent general Palestinian election has been held. For Palestinians, that has also meant a presidency that has gone without a fresh popular mandate for many years, as Qassem noted.

What Is at Stake for Ordinary Palestinians

Behind the factional exchange lies a simpler question: the right to choose one's own representatives. A legislature that has not functioned effectively since 2006 means laws are made, or not made, without the participation of an elected body. It means the mechanisms through which citizens ordinarily hold power to account — a debating chamber, a legislative committee, a vote that can be lost — have been absent for many years.

The institutional vacuum is not confined to the legislature. The absence of presidential elections for many years, as Qassem noted, has left the highest office in the Palestinian political system without a fresh popular mandate. For young Palestinians who have never voted in a national election, the prospect of a ballot on 28 November is not a routine civic event but something they have never experienced.

That is why the question of postponement carries such weight. Each delay is not merely a scheduling matter. It extends a period in which Palestinians are governed by institutions they have not chosen, under arrangements shaped by a division between Fatah and Hamas that has never been resolved at the ballot box.

The 2021 Precedent and the Fear of Repetition

The memory of 2021 hangs over the current debate. Elections were scheduled then, too, and Palestinians prepared to vote. Voting did not take place. The postponement was justified at the time by the absence of arrangements and consensus — the same reasoning now being invoked by Rajoub.

That precedent explains the sharpness of Hamas's response. When a vote is postponed once, the argument for postponement becomes easier to make a second time. Qassem's call for adherence to the announced timetable and for the completion of political and administrative arrangements is, in effect, an attempt to prevent the 2021 outcome from repeating itself.

Rajoub's remarks, meanwhile, point to a genuine obstacle: the political arrangements and consensus that would allow a vote to proceed have not been finalized. The disagreement is therefore not only about whether the vote should happen, but about what must be agreed before it can.

A System Still Divided

The broader context is the unresolved split between Fatah and Hamas, which has shaped Palestinian politics since 2006 and which no election has yet settled. The debate over reforming Palestinian institutions and holding elections is inseparable from that division, because any vote would have to be organized across a political system that remains fragmented.

Qassem's call for guarantees encompassing the different components of the Palestinian political system reflects Hamas's insistence that elections not be limited to one institution while others remain untouched. Fatah's concerns, as expressed by Rajoub, center on whether the conditions for a credible vote exist at all.

Both positions point to the same underlying reality: the Palestinian political system has operated for years without the electoral legitimacy that only a national vote can confer. Until that changes, decisions about governance and about the daily lives of Palestinians will continue to be made within a framework that ordinary Palestinians have had no recent opportunity to endorse or reject.

The Weeks Ahead

With the vote scheduled for 28 November, the coming weeks will determine whether the timetable holds. Hamas has made clear it will press for the date to be respected. Fatah's most senior voices have signaled doubt. The arrangements and consensus that Rajoub says are missing have not yet been completed.

For Palestinians, the stakes are concrete. A vote on 28 November would be the first legislative election since 2006. Its cancellation would extend the period in which no general Palestinian election has been held. Either outcome would shape not only the composition of Palestinian institutions but the relationship between Palestinians and the authorities that govern them.

Qassem's statement and Rajoub's remarks have set the terms of the argument. What remains unresolved is whether the political will exists to complete the arrangements needed for Palestinians to vote — or whether, once again, the date will pass without a ballot.

This article was produced with AI-assisted research and editorial support. Sources: Middle East Monitor.

By Fatima Al-Rashid, Staff Writer