The Presidential Decree and the Challenge of Holding Elections

Author: ابراهيم ابراش

The decree issued by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the nineteenth of this month surprised everyone and seemed like an escape forward or out of the context of reality and events, even those affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization and the National Council targeted by the decree were surprised like the rest of the people.

Most reactions to the presidential decree were negative, critical, or bewildered and questioning, even from within the organization and Fatah movement, especially since, as far as we know, the decree was not preceded by any dialogues or discussions within the Central Council of the organization or within the Executive Committee – although the decree insisted on the meeting of the Executive Committee on the matter without specifying a date – and even at the level of the Central Committee of the Fatah movement, which is the last remaining bastion of the legitimate PLO.

With full appreciation and respect for the president and his right as the head of the people and the Palestine Liberation Organization to take what he sees fit for the national interest, there are questions about his decision-making process and the issuance of his decrees, especially on strategic national issues that concern the entire nation?
The president's call for a meeting of the National Council at this difficult time is understandable and necessary to discuss the dangers facing the national cause and what is happening in the Gaza Strip in terms of destruction, death, and hunger, but the call for elections for the National Council within this year (only five months) is surprising, not only because it is a call for elections for the National Council only without the rest of the general presidential and legislative elections but also due to the impossibility of holding elections in this short period unless the president has assurances from unknown parties that the obstacles that have prevented conducting general elections inside and outside for years have been or will be overcome, and everyone knows that since the establishment of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964, members of the National Council have never been elected and were always compensated by agreement among the parties or direct appointments from leadership, and Israel has recently hampered the holding of elections in the city of Jerusalem?
Aside from these questions, some of which are skeptical, and even if we overlook the issue of the conference location and whether it will be held in the remnants of the occupied West Bank or abroad? The issuance of the decree at this time and in this manner indicates one of two matters or hypotheses or both:
First: The president does not trust the parties and factions whether inside or outside the organization and finds no benefit in dialogue with them about the PLO, especially since there have been dozens of dialogues and even expected agreements regarding the organization without implementation, and the opposing forces to the organization and its approach have failed to provide the people with a better alternative.
Second: The president senses, and may have come to the conclusion, that there is a real danger threatening the existence of the Palestinian Authority, and thus to prevent a vacuum, he wants to preemptively restore the legitimacy of the PLO and re-energize it to represent all the people inside and outside and to lead the national liberation movement, even though the conditions mentioned in the decree for participation in the elections contradict this hypothesis, because the problem in the political settlement process and non-compliance with international legitimacy and external agreements was not with the Palestinian parties but with Israel itself.
I fear that the decree, instead of being a step to rectify the organization’s path and move towards reconciliation and national unity, will lead to an increase in internal disagreements and distract attention from the real existential threat to the national cause and what is happening in the Gaza Strip from unprecedented death, destruction, and hunger in the history of humanity.