Polling stations in the city of Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip closed on Saturday with a turnout of 22.6%, almost half of the turnout recorded in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank.
These local elections, organized by the Palestinian National Authority (PA), were the first organized in the Gaza Strip in the last 20 years, write EFE and Agerpres.
The voting period, which took place in tents erected in this city in the heart of the war-torn Palestinian enclave, was extended by the Palestinian Central Electoral Committee (CEC) by an hour to 18:00 local time (15:00 GMT) to allow more Palestinians to cast their ballots.
The CEC had reported that the voter turnout an hour before the polls closed in Deir al-Balah was only 21.2%, compared to the average of 40.6% in the West Bank.
The Palestinian municipal elections ended without major incident
Finally, the turnout for Saturday's municipal elections in the occupied West Bank and in the Deir el-Balah area of the Gaza Strip was 53.4%, the voting process taking place without major incidents, although in a tense atmosphere.
Although there were fears regarding the possibility of a boycott of the elections by the settlers, only minor incidents were reported in Toubas and Nablus governorates, according to the pro-democracy organization Al Marsad, which deployed more than 500 observers to monitor the process, EFE and Agerpres report.
At the same time, CEC sources told the EFE agency that no incidents were reported during the vote in the Gaza Strip. Voter turnout in the city of Deir al-Balah (central Gaza) finally reached 22.6%.
The CEC will announce the election results on Sunday.
The first elections in the Gaza Strip in the last 20 years
These are the first elections in the Gaza Strip in two decades, this time organized by the PNA, which governs the West Bank and is controlled by the Fatah party, with which the Islamist group Hamas, which still rules the Palestinian enclave, is in frequent conflict.
The elections were made possible by the acceptance of Hamas, which has indicated its willingness to relinquish control of the Gaza Strip under the ceasefire in force from October 2025.
The choice of the city of Deir al-Balah – where only independent parties are running – comes from the fact that it is one of the few cities in the Gaza Strip that is not militarily occupied by the Israeli army, which controls more than half of the territory and has destroyed or damaged 80% of the buildings throughout the territory of the Palestinian enclave.
Deir al-Balah, where 70,000 people have the right to vote, has largely retained its paved streets, infrastructure, and most of its civil and private institutions are functioning, in an enclave where more than 72,000 people were killed following the Israeli offensive that began in October 2023.
Without Hamas on the electoral lists. Why were they excluded?
The turnout reported by the Palestinian Central Electoral Commission (CEC) was the same as that recorded in the second phase of the last local elections, held in March 2022, and lower than the percentage of 64.7% in the first phase of these elections, which took place in December 2021.
The Islamist group Hamas did not participate in the 2021 and 2022 local elections in protest against the cancellation of the Palestinian parliamentary elections scheduled for May 2021.
In this Saturday's elections, Hamas was also absent from the electoral lists, after refusing to sign a condition imposed on the candidates: their commitment to the two-state solution, one Palestinian and one Israeli, thus recognizing the state of Israel.
The Hamas boycott extended to the Gaza Strip in 2021, where it has ruled de facto since 2007, but this Saturday the Islamist group allowed the Palestinian National Authority (PA), which governs the West Bank, to hold local elections in the city of Deir al-Balah.
For 20 years, Palestinians in the West Bank have only been able to vote in municipal elections, with the last presidential election held in 2005 and the last parliamentary election in 2006.
In the case of the Gaza Strip, the residents of Deir al-Balah are the first to vote since 2006, as Hamas has not authorized local elections all this time, amid clashes with Fatah – the ruling party of the ANP – which it expelled from the Strip in 2007.
