Palestinians vote in first elections since Gaza war

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories - Palestinians in the West Bank and a central area of Gaza cast their ballots in municipal elections on April 25 in a first vote since the Gaza war, marked by a narrow political field and widespread disillusionment.

Nearly 1.5 million people are registered to vote in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as well as 70,000 people in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah area, according to the Ramallah-based Central Elections Commission.

AFP footage from Al-Bireh in the West Bank and Deir el-Balah in Gaza showed election officials in polling stations as Palestinians came to vote.

An AFP journalist visiting stations in the West Bank said turnout was low during the morning, while a number of foreign diplomats conducted monitoring visits.

The elections commission said late morning that turnout stood at 15 per cent.

Most electoral lists are aligned with president Mahmud Abbas’s secular-nationalist Fatah party or running as independents.

There are no lists affiliated with Fatah’s archrival Hamas, which controls nearly half of the Gaza Strip.

In most cities, Fatah-backed tickets will run against independent lists headed by candidates from factions such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Marxist-Leninist).

“We must see change every four years through elections... We can’t change the situation but we hope to replace people... people who might be better and help develop the community,” said Mr Khalid Eid, 55, after he voted in Al-Bireah.

Some aspiring candidates complained that they were prevented from participating, including the head of one list, Mr Mohammad Dweikat, of Nablus, who told AFP that some candidates on his ticket were detained until the end of the registration period.

Nablus is expected to see its first woman mayor elected in the absence of competing lists.

EU hails elections

Municipal councils are responsible for basic services such as water, sanitation and local infrastructure and do not enact legislation.

The Palestinian Authority faces widespread criticism over corruption, stagnation and declining legitimacy.

Western and regional donors have increasingly tied financial and diplomatic support for the PA to visible reforms, particularly at the local governance level, as national elections remain frozen.

With no presidential or legislative elections held since 2006, municipal councils have become one of the few functioning democratic institutions under PA administration.

The European Union said the elections were an “important step towards broader democratisation and strengthened local governance, in general terms and in line with the ongoing reforms process”.

UN coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov commended the election commission for organising a “credible process”.

“Saturday’s elections represent an important opportunity for Palestinians to exercise their democratic rights during an exceptionally challenging period,” Dr Alakbarov said in a statement ahead of the polls.

Mr Mahmud Bader, a businessman from the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, where two adjacent refugee camps have been under Israeli military control for over a year, said he would vote despite having little hope for meaningful change.

“Whether candidates are independent or partisan, it has no effect and will have no effect or benefit for the city,” he told AFP on April 24.

“The (Israeli) occupation is the one that rules Tulkarem. It would only be an image shown to the international media – as if we have elections, a state or independence.”

‘Strong determination’

Polling stations in the West Bank will close at 7pm, while in Deir al-Balah, polls will close at 5pm to facilitate counting in daylight due to the lack of electricity in the war devastated strip, the elections commission told AFP.

Two years of war that started in October 2023 have left swathes of Gaza destroyed and more than 72,000 people dead, according to the territory’s health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

Public infrastructure, sanitation services and the health sector are struggling to function.

Gaza, which has been under Hamas control since 2007, will see its first vote since the legislative elections of 2006 that the Islamist movement won.

The Palestinian Authority is holding elections only in Deir el-Balah “as an experiment (to test its own) success or failure, since there are no post-war opinion polls”, Professor Jamal al-Fadi, a political scientist at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, told AFP.

Deir el-Balah was chosen as it was one of the only places in Gaza where “the population has remained largely in place and not been displaced” by more than two years of war between Hamas and Israel, Prof Fadi said.

Mr Mohammed al-Hasayna, 24, said after voting in Deir el-Balah that although the elections were largely symbolic, they served as a sign of people’s “will to live”.

“We are an educated people with strong determination, and we deserve to have our own state,” he told AFP.

“We want the world to help us overcome the catastrophe of war. Enough wars – it is time to work towards rebuilding Gaza.” AFP