Palestinians went to polling stations Saturday for local elections spanning the Israeli-occupied West Bank and part of Gaza, a vote the Palestinian Authority described as its first attempt to hold elections in Gaza in more than two decades. In Deir al-Balah, a central city in central Gaza, officials said the balloting was intended as a pilot that would politically connect the two territories while Abbas, the Palestinian president, aims to build support for an independent state in both areas.
In the West Bank, tens of thousands cast ballots to choose local councils tasked with overseeing services including water, roads and electricity, election officials said. Voters in the West Bank and Gaza said they wanted a say over local decision-making amid a near-total absence of public services, and they described the vote as a mechanism for electing people they say could deliver basic needs. Election officials reported preliminary turnout of 53.4% overall and 22.7% in Deir al-Balah, after polls closed, according to AP.
In Deir al-Balah, the election marked a largely symbolic step as Hamas did not field candidates in the vote area, despite the broader conflict that has reshaped Gaza for more than two years. Officials said Deir al-Balah was damaged by airstrikes but was spared an Israeli ground invasion during that period, and more than 70,000 people were eligible to vote for the municipal government in the city. Ashraf Abu Dan, one of the voters interviewed by AP in Deir al-Balah, said: “I came to vote because I have a right to elect members to municipal council so they can provide us with services.”
The level of participation in the West Bank surprised observers who expected lower turnout to signal apathy or a diminished faith in elected office. Election officials said the West Bank turnout was near the level of previous local elections, and that municipal elections are used to determine local councils even as national-level voting has been largely absent for years. Officials said results in individual races were expected Sunday.
The Central Election Commission, run out of Ramallah, said the commission sought to link Gaza and the West Bank geographically and politically through the Deir al-Balah vote. Rami Hamdallah, the chair of the commission and a former prime minister, said: “We’re talking about geographically linking the West Bank and Gaza Strip.” Hamdallah and other officials said the commission chose Deir al-Balah for the first Gaza vote because it was able to conduct the balloting there, even though the commission said it lacked the ability to use traditional voter registration methods.
Hamdallah said Israel blocked the entry into Gaza of key materials used in standard elections, including ballot paper, ballot boxes and ink. He said the commission instead repurposed materials, including using wooden ballot boxes and ink from a vaccination drive conducted the previous year. Election officials said the commission did not coordinate directly with Israel or Hamas before the vote; AP footage showed security officers outside polling stations, while the Israeli military body that oversees humanitarian affairs in Gaza, COGAT, did not respond to questions about whether materials were blocked.
The election in Gaza came as Hamas controls the half of Gaza that Israel withdrew from last year, including Deir al-Balah, and Gaza was preparing to transition to a new governance structure under a U.S.-brokered 20-point ceasefire plan. The plan excludes both Fatah and Hamas and calls for an international Board of Peace and a committee of unelected Palestinian experts expected to govern under it, with further phases—such as disarming Hamas, reconstruction and transferring power—stalled. The local elections also did not include Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, a recurring point of tension between Israeli and Palestinian leaders who both claim it as part of their future political arrangements.
In the West Bank, some voters questioned the political coherence of the election system even as they participated. Khalid al-Qawasmeh, a voter in the West Bank city of Beitunia, said: “Municipal laws need to be enforced so people feel there’s justice,” while Marwan Ennabi said elections did not reflect what he described as a thriving Palestinian democracy capable of changing deteriorating conditions on the ground. Ennabi said: “This isn’t transparency,” and added, “This is chaos, chaos, chaos!”