Municipal elections are being held in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Deir al-Balah region of the Gaza Strip on Saturday, the first voting in the Palestinian territories since the war in Gaza.
According to the Ramallah-based Central Election Commission, about 1.5 million people are registered to vote in the West Bank, while there are 70,000 eligible voters in Gaza.
Gaza has not held an election since a 2006 legislative vote won by the Islamist group Hamas, which violently seized control from the Palestinian Authority under the leadership of rival Fatah a year later.
The West Bank has not held a vote before the Israel-Hamas war begins in October 2023.
Who are the candidates in the Palestinian elections?
Most electoral lists in the elections are aligned with President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah, a secular-nationalist party, or running as independents.
There is no list affiliated with Hamas, which still controls about half of the Gaza Strip not occupied by Israeli military forces.
However, polling by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research showed that it is still the most popular Palestinian faction in both Gaza and the West Bank.
In several West Bank cities, including Nablus and Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority led by 90-year-old Abbas, only one list has been submitted, meaning it wins automatically without the need for a vote.
Voting in the West Bank will elect members of local councils that oversee water, roads and electricity but do not make laws.
Voting in Gaza is being considered largely symbolic. It is being held only in Deir al-Balah because it is one of the few areas in the enclave that has not experienced Israeli ground offensives.
The Palestinian Authority also hopes the elections will help strengthen its claim to control the territory after it was ousted from power by Hamas in 2007. However, he has faced allegations of widespread corruption.
Nearly 1,200 people have died in the two-year war that began after Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Israel in October 2023 destroyed large parts of Gaza and left more than 72,000 dead, according to the territory’s health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations and other international organizations.
Public infrastructure, sanitation services and health sectors are struggling to function.
UN calls elections ‘credible’
UN Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov praised the commission for conducting a “credible process”.
“Saturday’s elections represent an important opportunity for Palestinians to exercise their democratic rights during an exceptionally challenging period,” Alakbarov said in a statement ahead of the election.
Election commission spokesman Farid Tamallah said the vote “reflects the desire of the Palestinian people to live on their land and develop their country.”
“The main idea is to connect the West Bank and Gaza politically as one system,” he said.
Palestinians see uniting the two territories under one government as a key element in any future efforts to achieve statehood.
Although Israel’s government opposes the idea, European and Arab governments broadly support the eventual return of the Palestinian Authority to rule Gaza, along with an independent Palestinian state.
Tamallah said that the Commission had not directly coordinated with Israel or Hamas in organizing the vote in Gaza. Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, Germany, and several other countries.
COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees humanitarian affairs in Gaza, did not respond to questions about whether it would allow election material.
Polling stations in the West Bank will close at 7 pm (1600 GMT), while polls in Deir al-Balah will close at 5 pm (1400 GMT) due to power shortages in the war-torn region.
edited by. shawn sinico