The European Union said it was ready to deploy election observers for the Palestinian legislative elections scheduled for November.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas made the announcement on X after speaking with Palestinian Vice President Hussein Al-Sheikh.
“Palestinians have the right to choose their representatives in elections that are credible, inclusive and transparent,” Kallas wrote.
She added that after nearly 20 years without a parliamentary vote, the elections would provide a long-overdue opportunity to renew the legitimacy of Palestinian institutions.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has set November 28 as the date for the legislative elections. If held as scheduled, they would be the first such vote in two decades.
Holding elections is among the reforms demanded by the international community, including the European Union, which provides financial support to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.
The Palestinian territories last held legislative elections in 2006, when Hamas defeated Abbas’s Fatah party, which had previously dominated Palestinian politics. Since 2007, the Palestinian Legislative Council, the parliament of Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, has not convened.
Palestinians returned to the polls in April to elect municipal council representatives in the occupied West Bank. It was the first vote since the Gaza war broke out in October 2023.
However, the legislative elections face significant logistical challenges stemming from Israeli measures in the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the West Bank, territories Israel has occupied since 1967.
