Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree announcing presidential elections next year and general elections on November 1.
Elections are scheduled to take place in November for the Palestinian National Council – the parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, representing all Palestinians inside the occupied territories and abroad. It has more than 700 members, intended to reflect the support of different political factions, although Mr Abbas's Fatah is the dominant party. The votes will run in conjunction with the Legislative Council (PLC) elections.
The decree has also made significant changes concerning the participation of women and the minimum age of candidates.
At least one in three people on an electoral list must be a woman – and candidates as young as 23, down from 28, can now participate in PLC elections. The PLC would be staging elections for the first time in 20 years. The law also increases the number of seats in the PLC from 132 to 200.
In February, the President ordered a new interim constitution for Palestine covering matters about national identity, civil rights and elections. Palestine has only a Basic Law to outline the relationship between the government and its people, which was last amended in 2005.
Presidential and legislative elections were scheduled for 2021, but Mr Abbas cancelled them, citing Israel's refusal to allow Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem to take part as the reason. Experts said he was taking the easy way out after opinion polls showed that a candidate list led by imprisoned Palestinian activist Marwan Barghouti would win the legislative elections.
The Palestinian Authority has been under increasing pressure to reform, both from its citizens and internationally, as more countries formally recognise the Palestinian state. Canada, the UK, France and Australia were among those to do so last year, resulting in more than 80 per cent among UN member states.
Conversations about reform took centre stage at the UN General Assembly last year, when the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution was announced. Part of the alliance's aims is to help the Palestinian Authority make reforms.
There, Mr Abbas made promises that this year will be the year of elections – and that the Palestinian government will become more democratic.
Last year, he appointed a potential successor, Hussein Al Sheikh and a Prime Minister, Mohammad Mustafa, in 2024. But corruption is a long-standing problem in the ruling PA.
The election could push rivals Hamas and Fatah to hold substantive conversations, which have largely remained symbolic in recent years.
Hamas has lost its political grip over Gaza, particularly with the formation of a US-backed interim technical committee, which does not involve the armed group that has ruled Gaza for the past decade.
