In January of this year, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has held office without elections for two decades, declared elections for the PA parliament and presidency, slated for May 22 and July 31 respectively. Now, barely three months removed since that ambitious declaration, Abbas is looking for a way out of the predicament he created and now appears on the verge of canceling them altogether.
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For Abbas, the declaration itself was most important. It's entirely possible he never had any intention of ever following through, and that he simply sought to present himself to the new Biden administration as a proponent of democracy and to push Israel into a corner by painting it as a serial obstructer of Palestinian efforts to hold democratic elections.
It took Abbas only a few short days to realize he had opened a Pandora's Box, as his enemies rushed to exploit the election process inside and outside the PLO. Thus, a move intended to strengthen Abbas and hurt Israel quickly emerged as a lethal threat to his political career. Indeed, aside from his sworn enemy, Hamas, his other political enemies from within the Fatah movement also moved quickly to submit their candidacies, namely Marwan Barghouti, who is currently serving a life sentence in Israel prison, and Mohammed Dahlan, who currently resides in the United Arab Emirates.
It's no surprise that Abbas has looked for an excuse to dial back the decision. As per usual, he will pin the blame on Israel. Indeed, he recently said that if Israel prohibits east Jerusalem residents from voting, he will cancel the elections. It's safe to assume that if Israel bends over and allows them to vote, Abbas will find another excuse.
It's unclear what Abbas achieved from his election ploy. But for the 85-year-old leader, who can count his political future in months, not years, even buying a few more days or weeks is a lifeline. What is clear is that this election fiasco has set the general outline for the looming succession battle once he's gone – an epic within the PLO and even within Fatah that threatens to tear this movement to pieces. Hamas, for its part, has only to sit by and watch while its dirty work is done by others.
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