Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Palestinians in the West Bank and central Gaza Strip began casting their votes on Saturday to elect municipal councils, in the first voting process since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, taking place in light of limited competition and a state of popular frustration.
According to the Central Elections Committee in Ramallah, about 1.5 million voters in the occupied West Bank are entitled to cast their votes, in addition to 70,000 voters in the Deir al-Balah area in the central Gaza Strip.
Polling stations opened at seven in the morning (04:00 GMT).
AFP footage from Al-Bireh in the West Bank and Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip showed voters casting their votes, and others waiting in front of polling stations, while thousands of Palestinians came to cast their votes.
The Central Elections Committee said that it will hold a press conference later on Saturday to announce the results, as vote counting begins immediately after the polling stations close.
An official in the committee told AFP, “The participation rate in the morning is remarkable. We expect it to exceed 80 percent.”
Most of the electoral lists belong either to the Fatah movement led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, or to independents, while there are no lists linked to the Hamas movement, which controls nearly half of the Gaza Strip, while Israel controls the other half.
In most cities, Fatah-backed lists compete with independent lists led by candidates from different factions, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which has a Marxist-Leninist orientation.
Hiyam Abu Salim (42 years old) expressed her happiness with the elections in her city of Deir al-Balah. “I feel proud to be participating in voting in the elections,” she said, hoping that “the elections will be generalized as quickly as possible in the rest of the cities of the Gaza Strip.”
She added that these elections are “a message to the world that Gaza loves life and is capable of building a state despite all the tragedies.”
Municipal councils are responsible for basic services such as water, sanitation, and local infrastructure and do not enact laws.
– “An important step” –
In Gaza, public infrastructure, sanitation services, and the health sector suffer from enormous difficulties in performing their functions after the devastation caused by Israeli bombing, bombing operations, and battles.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority faces widespread criticism due to corruption, stagnation, and the erosion of its legitimacy.
Western and regional donors are increasingly linking their financial and diplomatic support to concrete reforms, especially at the local government level.
In the absence of any presidential or legislative elections since 2006, municipal councils have become one of the few democratic institutions that still operate under the administration of the Palestinian Authority.
The European Union considered the elections “an important step towards a broader democratic process and strengthening local governance in general, in line with the ongoing reform process.”
United Nations Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov also praised the Election Commission’s organization of a “credible process.”
He said in a statement, “Saturday’s elections represent an important opportunity for Palestinians to exercise their democratic rights under exceptional, challenging circumstances.”
Mahmoud Badr, a businessman from the city of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank, where two neighboring camps have been under Israeli military control for more than a year, said that he would vote despite little hope of achieving real change.
“Whether the candidates are independent or partisan, this has no effect, and will not have any benefit for the city,” he told AFP on Friday.
He continued, “The occupation is the one ruling Tulkarm. What is happening is nothing but an image presented to the international media, as if we have elections, a state, or independence.”
The Election Commission reported that polling stations in the West Bank will close at 19:00 (16:00 GMT), while polls in Deir al-Balah will be closed at five in the evening to facilitate the counting process in daylight, due to the power outage in the devastated sector.
The war that broke out in October 2023 left widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip and resulted in the deaths of more than 72,500 people, according to figures from the Ministry of Health in Gaza, which the United Nations considers reliable.
– “changing” –
The elections in the Gaza Strip, which has been governed exclusively by Hamas since 2007, are the first voting process since the legislative elections in 2006, which the Islamic Movement won.
Jamal Al-Aqraa, a resident of Deir Al-Balah, described the elections as “a national democratic process, and a legitimate right regardless of all circumstances… We are moving towards change and rebuilding our city.”
Jamal Al-Fadi, professor of political science at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, told AFP that the Palestinian Authority is organizing elections in Deir Al-Balah only “as a kind of experiment to test its success or failure, in the absence of opinion polls after the war.”
Al-Fadi attributes the choice of Deir al-Balah to it being one of the few areas in Gaza in which a large number of its residents were not displaced during the two-year war.
Muhammad al-Hasayna, 24 years old, who participated in voting at an election center in central Deir al-Balah, said, “I feel for the first time in my life that I am a human being like other human beings.”
He called on the world to “help us overcome the catastrophe of war. Enough of the wars. It is time to work to build Gaza. We want peace for all.”
Thousands of police officers participate in securing the elections in the cities and villages of the West Bank, while about 250 policemen affiliated with the Hamas-run Ministry of Interior are responsible for securing voting centers in Deir al-Balah, according to security sources.
Dozens of observers from civil society organizations were deployed in the 12 polling stations in the central Gaza Strip.
