Mahmoud Abbas’s latest electoral reforms amount to political theater designed to appease international donors while leaving the P.A.’s anti-democratic and pro-terror culture intact.
On June 14, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree-law amending Decree-Law No. 1 of 2007 on general elections and its subsequent amendments. The move was presented as part of efforts to “enhance political participation and broaden democratic representation.”
According to the Palestinian News Agency WAFA, the decree-law increases the number of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council to 200, lowers the electoral threshold for winning seats to 1%, and raises the minimum number of candidates on each electoral list from 16 to 20.
While the changes appear on the surface to include positive steps—such as increasing women’s representation and lowering the minimum age for candidacy to encourage youth participation—experts dismissed the initiative as a “farce.”
Cosmetic reforms