Local elections in the West Bank and part of Gaza could test public trust

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — For the first time in two decades, Palestinians in battle-scarred Gaza have a chance to vote 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.”

Though it has not held presidential or legislative elections since 2006, the Palestinian Authority has 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 has not been able to send materials like ballot paper, ballot boxes or ink into Gaza, he added. COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees humanitarian affairs in Gaza, did not respond to questions about whether it would allow election materials in.

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.

A thin candidat

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Ninety-year-old President Mahmoud Abbas signed a decree last year overhauling the electoral system in line with some demands of Western donors. The reforms allow voting for individuals rather than slates, lowered the eligibility age to run and raised quotas for women candidates.

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. Votes will be held in villages in what's known as “Area C” under Israeli military control as well as in municipalities that have been occupied by Israel's military since it launched a ground invasion in the northern West Bank last year.

Campaign posters have been plastered across cities, though many — including Ramallah and Nablus — will not hold elections because too few candidates or slates registered.

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 weak legitimacy of the national government, it is seeking to bolster legitimacy through local elections.”

With the authority having little recourse to address hundreds of new military gates and settler outposts constricting movement in the West Bank, he said many councils have taken on greater importance, overseeing local health centers, schools and public services 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 forth candidates for Saturday, but polling from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research shows it remains the most popular Palestinian faction in both Gaza and the West Bank.

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.”

Other international actors, however, have been largely silent on the Gaza vote, with memories still fresh of past elections fueling conflict and other avenues for governance in limbo.

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.