This is the first time members of the council will be elected by direct popular vote, while in the past they were appointed or co-opted from within the movement.

Abbas, who is president both of the Palestinian Authority and of the PLO, issued a decree saying that: “Elections will be held wherever possible, both inside and outside Palestine, to ensure the broadest possible participation of the Palestinian people wherever they reside”.

The PNC has long served as as the PLO’s parliament in exile. It is dominated by Fatah, Abbas’s political movement, which was co-founded by Yasser Arafat, the Palestinians’ historic leader who died in 2004.

The Islamist movements Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which are not members of the PLO, are not represented in the council.