People cast votes in the municipal elections in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on Saturday — the first election held in Gaza in 20 years, and the first in the West Bank since the outbreak of the war. Photo by Haitham Imad/EPA
April 25 (UPI) — Palestinians in Gaza held an election for the first time in 20 years as municipal elections were held there and in the West Bank on Saturday.
People in Deir al-Balah, a city in central Gaza, voted for the first time since 2006 because it was the least destroyed area after two years of airstrikes by Israel after the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, CNN reported.
The elections, which also were held in many parts of the West Bank, were run by the Palestinian Authority and required candidates to agree with Palestinian Liberation Organization to recognize the state of Israel and support a two-state solution.
Elections were last held in the West Bank in 2022, The BBC reported, and had not been held in Gaza since Hamas took the enclave over two decades ago. Hamas was not permitted to participate in the elections.
Election results will be reported either late Saturday or on Sunday.
Salama Badwan, who voted with his wife and daughter, told Al Jazeera that the first election “is a truly Palestinian democratic celebration.”
“We must change everything through the ballot box,” Badwan said. “Whoever wins, it is their right, but not through inheritance … change must be through the hands of the people.”
Roughly 70,000 Palestinians — or 5% of the entire Gazan population — in Deir al-Balah were eligible to vote because many of the places that would have been used for voting were destroyed, as were supplies like ballot boxes.
The Palestinian Authority’s Fatah party dominated ballots as votes were held for 90 municipal councils and 93 village councils — leaving 42 other municipal councils and 155 village councils to be decided without votes.
Hamas praised the vote in Gaza and expressed hope for the rest of the territory to also choose its own leaders, although after its election in 2006 it forced Fatah out of Gaza in often violent battles and had not held an election since.
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