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Source: https://jcfa.org/defying-reform-abbass-elections-are-a-direct-challenge-to-president-trump/
Abbas's PA Election Plan Defies Reform
(Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch - Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is turning the PA into a Soviet-style democracy in which everyone can vote, but only for one party. The PA is scheduled to hold municipal elections on April 25, 2026, and has issued several decrees in preparation, including one on Jan. 27. The decree limits participation in the elections to lists and candidates that commit to the PLO platform and its international commitments. Since Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) do not accept the PLO's hegemony, they will be excluded from participating in the elections. At the same time, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a murderous terrorist organization that has always rejected the Oslo Accords and openly rejects Israel's right to exist, remains to this day a member of the PLO and would be allowed to participate. Moreover, while Hamas did participate in the PA's 2006 general elections, it boycotted the PA's 2017 and 2021 municipal elections and prevented those elections from taking place in Gaza. Yet Abbas will no doubt point to his success in preventing Hamas participation. The writer, former director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria, is director of the Palestinian Authority Accountability Initiative at the Jerusalem Center.