Palestine holds municipal elections tomorrow that will mark the first vote in Gaza in two decades

Palestine will hold elections this Saturday in which positions in local councils will be up for grabs, a vote that, in the case of the Gaza Strip, will take place in Deir al-Balah (center), which will mark the first vote in more than two decades in the enclave, where a fragile ceasefire has been in force since October 2025, after more than two years of Israel’s offensive.

The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Palestine has indicated that more than a million people are called to the polls to elect representatives in 184 of the 421 local councils, including nearly 70,500 voters in Deir al Balá, the only Gazan constituency included in the process, after an electoral campaign that has lasted for fourteen days.

The organization has stated that, in addition, 197 municipalities and local councils will be formed by “acclamation”, given that only one candidate was presented per position, while in 40 there are no electoral lists or candidates in contention, without clarifying for now how they will be structured then.

This Friday’s day is marked by a day of reflection that, according to the organization, seeks to “generate a neutral and calm climate that allows voters to make a decision completely freely, far from any campaign influence or pressure,” with the aim of “enhancing the integrity” of the process and giving “the same opportunities to all lists and candidates.”

The vote will take place in a context of enormous tension marked by Israel’s continued attacks on Gaza – which have already left nearly 800 dead since the ceasefire came into effect, according to the Gazan authorities, controlled by Hamas – and the increase in attacks by settlers and incursions by Israeli security forces in the West Bank.

In fact, the vote in Gaza will take place only in Deir al Balá because it is a population center that is not under occupation by Israeli troops – deployed on the so-called ‘yellow line’, which extends over more than 50% of the territory of the enclave – since it suffered less material devastation than other areas of the Strip, plunged into a deep humanitarian crisis due to the Israeli offensive after the attacks of October 7, 2023.

However, the voter list includes only people who resided in the city before the offensive, so the thousands of displaced people who have arrived there from other parts of the enclave to escape Israeli attacks will not have the right to vote in the elections, the first in the enclave since the controversial elections held in January 2006 in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

These elections ended with the victory of the Change and Reform list, made up of Hamas candidates, both in Gaza and the West Bank – including East Jerusalem – something that led Israel and the United States to reject the results – a position supported by the Palestinian Authority – which subsequently led to an administrative and territorial separation after an intra-Palestinian conflict.

THE LATEST ELECTORAL PROCESSES

Since 2006, no elections have been held in Gaza, as Hamas proceeded to make administrative appointments in the enclave under its control, while in the West Bank there have been local elections – in 2012, 2017 and 2022 -, although the presidential and legislative elections have been postponed on several occasions, which has led to doubts about the legitimacy of the mandate of the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.

In fact, the ‘de facto’ dissolution in 2007 of the Palestinian Legislative Council – the Parliament – has left changes in electoral legislation in the hands of the Palestinian president, who has resorted to a series of decrees that have incorporated a new electoral system and the expansion of the quotas reserved for women to hold positions in these public bodies.

However, among the most controversial steps is one that requires all candidates to sign a commitment to “adhere to the political and national program of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO),” dominated by Abbas’s party, Fatah, and to which Hamas and other factions such as Islamic Jihad do not belong, which has been interpreted as an obstacle to their lists.

The situation has led to the exclusion of these formations, which do not present candidates under their aegis, in a context in which the Gaza authorities have demanded on several occasions that the entry of the team of technocrats that will assume the management of the Gaza Strip – the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (CNAG) – be authorized within the framework of the proposal presented by the United States for the future of the enclave.

The CNAG, headed by Ali Shaath, was created following the formation of the Peace Board, headed by the US president, Donald Trump, after the agreement in October 2025 to apply the aforementioned proposal, which received the support of the United Nations Security Council and which led to the aforementioned ceasefire, due to doubts about whether the application of the second phase of the pact will begin due to non-compliance with some commitments of the first.

For this reason, there are doubts about the relevance that the results of the elections in the Strip may have, especially due to suspicions about the lack of representation and the context of conflict that continues to prevail in the enclave, given the uncertainty about whether the political process will make its way or if Israel will finally choose to relaunch its large-scale offensive, amid international complaints about a genocide in Gaza.

THE UN TALKS ABOUT “IMPORTANT OPPORTUNITY”

The United Nations Special Deputy Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Ramiz Alakbarov, said that “this Saturday’s elections represent an important opportunity for Palestinians to exercise their democratic rights during an exceptionally difficult period,” before praising the CEC for its “constant efforts to prepare a credible process, given the significant challenges that exist in the West Bank and the extraordinarily difficult conditions that prevail in Gaza.”

The UN has called on all parties to ensure that the process takes place “in a peaceful, orderly and inclusive manner” and that “voters can exercise their right to participate freely and without intimidation”, as well as that any possible dispute that arises after the vote “is resolved through established legal channels.”

Finally, the organization has expressed its support for “strengthening Palestinian institutions and promoting democratic governance”, as part of “broader efforts to promote a just and lasting peace in accordance with international law, relevant UN resolutions, previous agreements and in pursuit of a viable two-state solution.”

The vote is considered a litmus test for the legislative elections on November 1, although there remain doubts about the capabilities to organize them in the absence of a political agreement between Fatah and Hamas and the technical difficulties in organizing the process, especially in the case of East Jerusalem, where Israel prevented the vote in 2021, which caused the postponement of the elections.

Added to all this is the security situation in the West Bank itself, where dozens of Palestinians have died in attacks carried out by settlers and security forces and where the Government of Israel has expanded the construction of settlements and the expropriation of Palestinian lands despite international criticism for these actions, which violate International Law and undermine the viability of the two-State solution.