Ramallah. Palestinians voted on Saturday to elect representatives to municipal councils in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a rare democratic exercise following a decade and a half of delays in Palestinian elections.
It was the second phase of the municipal elections, following a first round of voting in December in 154 West Bank villages. Turnout was 52.8 percent, according to the Central Election Commission.
Saturday’s vote was held in 50 locations, with many elections unopposed or without candidates in some cases due to a boycott by the Islamist Hamas movement that controls the Gaza Strip.
The armed group, which also did not participate in the 2017 municipal elections, said that it was willing to compete in these elections if the Palestinian Authority also organized presidential and legislative elections.
In April 2021, President Mahmud Abbas, whose mandate expired in 2009, had postponed these two elections indefinitely, assuring that their celebration was not guaranteed in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian part of the city annexed by Israel.
Voting in Al-Bireh, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas once more defended his decision to cancel presidential and legislative elections scheduled last year, saying they had to be held in “all Palestinian territories.”
More than 715 thousand voters were called to the polls.