DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — For the first time in two decades, Palestinians in battle-scarred Gaza are voting in local elections Saturday. And in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, voters are casting ballots for the first time since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Turnout may reflect the level of public trust in a broader system led by aging leaders in the West Bank and as Gaza prepares for an anticipated transition from Hamas rule.
The vote in the West Bank will determine the makeup of the local councils overseeing water, roads and electricity. The vote in a single city in Gaza, on the other hand, is largely symbolic, with officials calling it a “pilot.”
Some polling places in the West Bank and central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah were busy on Saturday morning, though the extent of participation remained unclear.
Voters who did turn out, however, said they did so because they wanted to exercise their right to vote and influence the state of their cities. Khalid al-Qawasmeh, a voter in the West Bank city of Beitunia, said people were voting out of hope for changes that address crumbling infrastructure and public services.
“Municipal laws need to be enforced so people feel there’s justice,” he said outside his polling place after his finger was inked blue to mark having voted.
Though it has not held presidential or legislative elections since 2006, the Palestinian Authority promoted the local races following reforms it enacted last year after demands from international backers.
Under the slogan “We Stay,” the Ramallah-based Central Election Commission has campaigned to encourage participation among the nearly 70,000 voters eligible in Gaza’s Deir al-Balah and 1 million in the West Bank.
Voting “reflects the will if the Palestinian people to stay on their land and develop their country,” its spokesperson Fareed Taamallah said.
Linking the West Bank and Gaza politically
With much of Gaza decimated by more than two years of war, the commission chose to hold its first vote in Deir al-Balah, which has been damaged by airstrikes but was one of the few areas spared an Israeli ground invasion. It had to improvise because it was unable to conduct traditional voter registration.
“The main idea is to link the West Bank and Gaza politically as one system,” Taamallah said. Palestinians see uniting the two under one government as integral to any path to future statehood.
The commission has not coordinated directly with either Israel or Hamas ahead of the Deir al-Balah vote and did not send materials like ballot paper, ballot boxes or ink into Gaza. Associated Press footage showed security officers keeping order outside polling stations, where voters used materials different from the official ballot boxes and papers used in the West Bank. COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees humanitarian affairs in Gaza, did not respond to questions about election materials.
Though Palestinian voter turnout has gradually decreased, it has been relatively high in past local elections by regional standards, according to commission figures, averaging between 50% and 60%. By comparison, turnout in recent local elections in Lebanon and Tunisia was under 40% and 12%, respectively.
In January, another Abbas decree required candidates to accept the program of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the group that leads the Palestinian Authority. The program calls for the recognition of Israel and renouncing armed struggle, effectively sidelining Hamas and other factions.
Slates in major cities are dominated by Fatah, the faction that leads the Palestinian Authority, and independents, some with ties to other factions. However, it’s the first time in six local elections that no other faction has officially put forward its own slate — an absence that analysts say reflects political disillusionment under Abbas and the authority’s aging leadership.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the authority exercises limited autonomy, and local councils oversee services from trash collection to building permits. Campaign posters have been plastered across cities, though many — including Ramallah and Nablus — will not hold elections because too few candidates or slates registered. In some cities such as Qalqilya, no slates registered to participate at all so the council will be appointed.
The Palestinian Authority’s power has withered amid years without peace negotiations with Israel and the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. But it sees local elections as a low-risk way to demonstrate progress on reforms, said Aref Jaffal, director of the al-Marsad Arab World Democracy and Electoral Monitor.
“The PA wants to show it is on the right track on political, financial and administrative reforms, and is using local elections as a symbol of that,” he said.
With the authority having little recourse to address hundreds of new military gates and settler outposts constricting movement in the West Bank, he said councils have taken on greater importance, overseeing local health centers and schools that residents once accessed elsewhere.
Deir al-Balah will be Gaza’s first election since 2006
Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 and violently seized control of Gaza from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority a year later. It did not put forward candidates for Saturday.
Ramiz Alakbarov, the U.N. deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, called the elections “an important opportunity for Palestinians to exercise their democratic rights during an exceptionally challenging period.”
Hamas controls the half of Gaza that Israeli forces withdrew from last year, including Deir al-Balah, but the coastal enclave is preparing to transition to a new governance structure under U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan.
The plan established a Board of Peace made up of international envoys and a committee of unelected Palestinian experts supposed to operate under it. Progress toward further phases, including disarming Hamas, reconstruction and a transfer of power, is stalled.
Though elections in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem are regular points of contention between Israel and Palestinian leaders, the 1995 Oslo Accords did not include provisions about the authority holding local races there. ___
Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank. Associated Press writers Jalal Bwaitel and Imad Isseid contributed to this report from Ramallah.
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