Palestinians to Vote in First Elections Since Gaza War

Palestinians in the West Bank and a central area of Gaza head to the polls Saturday for municipal elections in a first vote since the Gaza war, marked by a narrow political field and widespread disillusionment. 

Nearly 1.5 million people are registered to vote in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as well as 70,000 people in Gaza's Deir el-Balah area, according to the Ramallah-based Central Elections Commission.

Most electoral lists are aligned with president Mahmud Abbas's secular-nationalist Fatah party or running as independents. There are no lists affiliated with Fatah's archrival Hamas, which controls nearly half of the Gaza Strip. 

In most cities, Fatah-backed tickets



will run against independent lists headed by candidates from factions such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Marxist-Leninist).

Mahmud Bader, a businessman from the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, where two adjacent refugee camps have been under Israeli military control for over a year, said he would vote despite having little hope for meaningful change. 

"Whether candidates are independent or partisan, it has no effect and will have no effect or benefit for the city," he told AFP. 

"The (Israeli) occupation is the one that rules Tulkarem. It would only be an image shown to the international media -- as if we have elections, a state or independence."