RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Palestinians in the West Bank and a central section of Gaza began voting in municipal elections on Saturday, the first since the Gaza war, with a restricted party field and widespread disappointment.
According to the Ramallah-based Central Elections Commission, about 1.5 million people are registered to vote in Israel’s occupied West Bank, and 70,000 in Gaza’s Deir El-Balah district. The polling stations opened at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT).
AFP images from Al-Bireh in the West Bank and Deir El-Balah in Gaza showed election authorities in polling sites as Palestinians arrived to cast their votes. Most electoral lists support president Mahmud Abbas’ secular-nationalist Fatah party or run as independents.
There are no lists linked with Fatah’s main adversary Hamas, which controls roughly half of the Gaza Strip. In most cities, Fatah-backed tickets will compete with independent lists led by candidates from groupings such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Marxist-Leninist).
Mahmud Bader, a merchant from the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, where two adjacent refugee camps have been under Israeli military rule for more than a year, said he would vote despite his lack of optimism for real change. Whether candidates are independent or partisan, it has no effect and will have no effect or benefit for the city,” he said to AFP.
Also Read:
US EV Charging Infrastructure Struggles To Keep Pace Amid Fuel Price Surge
Palo Alto Investment In Coyote Valley Farmland Signals Growth In San Jose
