EU 'Ready To Deploy' Observers For Palestinian Legislative Polls

(MENAFN- Jordan Times) BRUSSELS - The European Union is "ready to deploy" election observers to monitor Palestinian legislative elections set for November, top diplomat Kaja Kallas said Tuesday.

"Palestinians have the right to choose their representatives in elections that are credible, inclusive and transparent," Kallas posted online after talking to Palestinian vice president Hussein Al-Sheikh.

"After nearly 20 years without a parliamentary vote, these elections would offer a long-overdue opportunity to renew the legitimacy of Palestinian institutions."

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has set the legislative polls for November 28. If they take place, it would mark the first such vote in two decades.

Holding elections is part of the reforms demanded by the international community, including the European Union, which supports the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority financially.

The last legislative elections in the Palestinian territories were held in 2006, when Hamas won, defeating Abbas's Fatah party, which had previously dominated Palestinian politics.

As a result, the Palestinian Legislative Council, which is the parliament of Abbas's Palestinian Authority, has not met since 2007.

In April, Palestinians went to the polls to elect municipal council heads in the occupied West Bank, in the first vote since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.

The legislative polls face major logistical challenges arising from Israeli measures in the Gaza Strip, as well as in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

Under the October 2025 US-brokered ceasefire, a technocratic committee has been formed to govern Gaza, but it has yet to enter the Palestinian territory.

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