Postponing the legislative elections is a national necessity

Writer: Abdullah Kamil

Legislative elections are an inherent democratic right for the Palestinian people, and a necessity to renew legitimacy and rebuild the political system, but holding them in the absence of national consensus, the continued division, the tragic conditions in the Gaza Strip, and the aggression, settlement, displacement and restrictions on movement that the West Bank is facing, raises serious questions about the possibility of ensuring free, fair and comprehensive elections.

How can real national elections be held in light of a fractured geographical and political reality, and human suffering that deprives large sectors of our people of stability and the ability to freely exercise their rights, in addition to the challenges facing the participation of our people in Jerusalem?

Elections are not just ballot boxes, but a political process that requires a minimum level of consensus, equal opportunities, ensuring freedom of candidacy and choice, and respect for the results. Without that, the elections may turn from a gateway to renewing legitimacy and ending the division into a new reason for deepening it.

Therefore, postponing the elections, if its national and democratic conditions cannot be met, may be a national necessity and not a retreat from democracy, provided that it does not turn into an open disruption of the electoral entitlement, and is linked to a serious national dialogue and a clear and binding timetable.

We need elections that unite and not divide, renew legitimacy and not diminish it, and rebuild a political system capable of confronting the occupation and defending the rights of our people.

What is required is not elections just to hold them, but rather elections that express the will of our people with all its components, and are a real step towards national unity within the framework of the PLO, commitment to its political, legal and national obligations, and the restoration of the unified Palestinian decision.