The Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank informed France this week that legislative elections in the territory scheduled for Nov. 28 would be postponed by several months, according to two Palestinian officials briefed on the communications.
The message was conveyed in a letter to the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, from Hussein al-Sheikh, deputy to the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, the officials said. Reuters first reported on the letter.
A postponement of the elections would come as Fatah, the governing party in of the PA, suffers from division, especially over Mr. Abbas’s increasingly authoritarian rule. Israel, which controls whether ballot boxes or election observers can enter Gaza, has also shown little readiness to facilitate the voting. That lack of engagement complicates the work of the Palestinian Authority’s election commission, according to three Western diplomats.
The Palestinian officials and Western diplomats spoke to The New York Times on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the sensitive matters.
A delay in holding elections would not help Mr. Abbas’s efforts to convince European nations and the United States that he can deliver changes to the Palestinian political system. The European Union is one of the Palestinian Authority’s biggest backers and has pressed Palestinian officials to pursue democratic reforms, including holding elections.
In September 2025, President Emmanuel Macron of France recognized a Palestinian state at the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, citing a series of commitments that Mr. Abbas had made to him, including “a thorough overhaul of Palestinian governance.”
Some three months earlier, Mr. Abbas had sent a letter to Mr. Macron declaring a commitment to hold elections within a year under international supervision “to rejuvenate the Palestinian governance.”
Last month, Mr. Barrot reinforced Paris’s commitment to Palestinian elections, writing an article in The Wall Street Journal that ended with the words, “Palestinian elections now.”
Pierre-Arnaud Blanchard, a French diplomat in residence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that there was “profound disappointment and frustration” in France.
“There’s also a sense that there’s a missed opportunity to breathe new life and legitimacy into the Palestinian Authority,” he said.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank, has been dogged for years by accusations of corruption, and U.S. officials have said that the body can play a meaningful role in postwar Gaza only if there is a significant overhaul.
Mr. Abbas, 90, was elected to office in early 2005 after the death of his predecessor, Yasir Arafat. As the leader of Palestinian Authority, Mr. Abbas has consolidated his power by ousting rivals, sidelining the judiciary and cooperating with Israel on security.
Analysts said the decision to postpone elections was partially a result of senior Palestinian Authority officials fearing that a vote could result in further erosion of their already waning legitimacy.
“Elections present a threat to the president and those around him,” said Jehad Harb, a Palestinian political expert.
The last time Palestinians participated in national elections was in 2006, and it led to a brittle governing body, international isolation and, eventually, violence.
In the voting that year, a rival party representing Hamas trounced Fatah, leading to a year and a half of uneasy power-sharing.
The United States and much of the West refused to work with the unity government because Hamas, which many countries designate a terrorist organization, would not accept demands such as renouncing violence.
Fatah and Hamas then fought a brief civil war in the Gaza Strip. That fighting ended in June 2007 with Hamas seizing control there after routing forces loyal to Mr. Abbas and confining his authority to parts of the West Bank.
Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting.
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