Australia, Canada, France and UK urge Abbas to reconsider postponement of Palestinian elections

The foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, France and the United Kingdom have expressed deep regret over Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to postpone presidential and legislative elections until September 2027, urging the Palestinian Authority to reverse the decision and organize elections without further delay. In a joint statement issued on Tuesday, the ministers noted that nearly two decades had passed since the last Palestinian Legislative Council elections and five years since the postponement of elections scheduled for 2021. They said an entire generation of Palestinians had reached adulthood without an opportunity to elect their political representatives. The ministers described the latest postponement as a major disappointment that further denied Palestinians the exercise of their electoral rights and risked undermining public […]