Ramallah: President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Mahmoud Abbas, has approved a constitutional declaration allowing the chairman of the Palestinian National Council (PNC) to serve as interim PNA president should the position become vacant.
According to Kuwait News Agency, the PNC, which acts as the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), represents Palestinians both inside and outside the occupied territories. In contrast, the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) represents Palestinians within the occupied regions. The new declaration stipulates that if there is no elected PLC and the PNA presidency is vacated, the PNC chairman can assume the role of interim president for a maximum of 90 days.
Within this period, the declaration mandates that free and direct presidential elections should be held in accordance with the electoral law. Alternatively, the Palestine Central Council, the PLO’s policy-making body, may extend this interim period once. Traditionally, the PNA
basic law dictates that the PLC speaker should serve as interim president for 60 days until a presidential election occurs. However, the PLC has been inactive since it was dissolved by a Constitutional Court verdict in 2018. The last PLC elections took place on January 25, 2006, resulting in a majority win for Hamas. Subsequently, the council has not convened since 2007, following Hamas’s takeover of the Gaza Strip.