US EditionPalestinians Vote in First Gaza Election in 20 Years
Turnout was 24.53% by 1 p.m., and the vote is seen as a test of Hamas support and Palestinian Authority reforms.
- On Saturday, April 25, 2026, residents in Deir al-Balah cast ballots in municipal elections, marking Gaza's first local vote in 20 years. The Central Elections Commission oversaw the process at 12 polling centres for approximately 70,000 eligible voters.
- The Palestinian Authority selected Deir al-Balah for this pilot vote because the city sustained less infrastructural damage than other areas, aiming to restore local governance and link the West Bank and Gaza as one political system.
- CEC regional director Jamil al-Khalidi noted organizers adopted exceptional measures, including relying on civil registry data instead of traditional voter lists due to displacement and loss of records. The system uses closed electoral lists requiring at least 15 candidates, with a minimum quota of four women.
- Candidate Faten Harb emphasized improving water and sanitation services, while skeptical residents view the vote as disconnected from daily survival. Analysts see the vote as a symbolic step toward restoring local legitimacy amid broader political fragmentation.
- Success in Deir al-Balah could pave the way for similar elections elsewhere in Gaza, potentially bolstering the PA's claim to govern the territory. However, experts emphasize that limited local voting cannot substitute for a comprehensive national political settlement.
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Ramallah. More than half a million Palestinians from the reoccupied West Bank and a small part of the strip participated in the local elections, which, for the first time in two decades, include Gaza on the ballot to elect mayors, in the midst of widespread discouragement, because of the Israeli offensive.
In Palestine, a local vote was held on Saturday, 25 April.
More than half a million Palestinians exercised their right to vote this Saturday in the municipal elections held both in the West Bank and in Deir al-Balá, the only area in the Gaza Strip in which the elections could be held.A spokesman for the Palestinian Central Electoral Commission (CEC), Farid Taamalá, reported 512,510 voters in the West Bank, 53.44 percent of the census, according to the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa.Taamalá stres…
Gaza held its first elections this Saturday in more than 20 years, but only in one city, for a small fraction of the population of the devastated territory, amid the stalemate in the process of advancing the negotiated ceasefire...
Palestinians in the West Bank and in a small segment of the Gaza Strip voted this Saturday to elect mayors and councillors, in the first elections since the beginning of the war in Palestinian territory, in a lawsuit marked by low participation and widespread discouragement. 'I need to constantly watch my children': Rats, fleas and parasites proliferate in displaced camps in Gaza Study: Reconstruction of Gaza will demand about R$ 355 billion in …
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