Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has officially extended the registration period for legislative election candidacy applications, moving the deadline from 12 to 18 days. According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, this change was enacted through an amendment to the 2007 General Elections Law. The adjustment is intended to provide political factions and independent candidates with additional time to finalize their submissions, particularly in light of stringent Israeli military and administrative restrictions on movement. These logistical challenges are compounded by volatile security and political conditions across occupied East Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank, and Gaza.
The Central Elections Commission, which began accepting candidate registrations on Saturday, confirmed that a seventh electoral list, known as Phoenix, submitted its application on Sunday. Previously, six other lists filed their paperwork on Saturday: the Future Palestine Coalition, Justice and Construction, Unity and Democratic Change, the Palestinian National Initiative of Mustafa Barghouti and independents, New Path, and Labour. The commission emphasized that the act of submitting an application does not guarantee automatic qualification; instead, each list will undergo a review process to ensure it meets all statutory criteria before the commission issues formal notifications within three days.
Under the established rules, candidates seeking to contest the 132-seat Palestinian Legislative Council must run through electoral lists rather than as individuals. Each slate is required to field between 16 and 132 candidates and must adhere to mandatory gender quotas. The upcoming general poll, scheduled for November 28, is set to take place across occupied East Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank, and Gaza. If the vote proceeds as planned, it will mark the first Palestinian parliamentary election since 2006 and only the third in the region's history, following previous polls in 1996 and 2006. The legislature has remained effectively paralyzed since internal political divisions emerged in 2007, leading to its constitutional dissolution in 2018. A previous attempt to hold elections in 2021 was shelved by President Abbas, who cited Israel's refusal to permit voting in occupied East Jerusalem as the primary reason.
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