Abbas loyalists win Palestine votes, including in Gaza
In Palestinian municipal elections, loyalists to President Mahmoud Abbas won most races in a vote that included a city run by rival Hamas in the Gaza Strip for the first time in almost two decades, election officials say.
Saturday’s vote marked the first elections in Gaza since 2006 and the first Palestinian elections since the Gaza war, which began more than two years ago with a Hamas cross-border offensive into southern Israel.
Abbas’s West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) said the inclusion of the Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, which was less damaged during the war than other parts of the coastal region, was intended to show that Gaza was an integral part of the future Palestinian state.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa said as the results were announced on Sunday that the elections, with low voter turnout, were held “at an extremely sensitive time, amid complex challenges and exceptional circumstances.”
But he said they represented “an important first step in a broader national process aimed at strengthening democratic life and ultimately ensuring the unity of the homeland.”
Hamas, which expelled the Palestinian Authority from Gaza in 2007, did not officially field candidates in Gaza and boycotted the race in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where a Fatah victory was widely expected.
But some candidates on one of the Deir al-Balah lists were widely viewed by residents and analysts as aligned with the movement, making the vote a potential indicator of support for the Islamist group.
Preliminary results showed that the list known as Deir al-Balah Brings Us Together won only two of the 15 seats contested in Gaza.
The Nahdat Deir al-Balah list, backed by Abbas’ Fatah party and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, won six seats. The remaining seats were won by groups unaffiliated with two other Gaza-based groups, the Future of Deir al-Balah and Peace and Construction.
Abbas loyalists crushed elections in the West Bank and ran unopposed in many seats.
Fatah spokesman Abdul Fattah Dawla stated that the turnout was similar to the last municipal elections held in the West Bank in 2022, and praised the turnout of voters despite Israel’s ongoing violence.
“By electing names linked to Fatah, voters appear to be looking for unlimited international support for the municipal government and a gradual political change that could go beyond the local level,” said Palestinian political analyst Reham Ouda.
The last war reduced much of Gaza to rubble; many residents were displaced and focused on survival. Israel continued its attacks despite the ceasefire in October.
According to Central Election Commission Chairman Rami al-Hamdallah, voter turnout in Gaza reached only 23 percent, while in the West Bank the rate was 56 percent.
Al-Hamdallah said that some ballot boxes and voting equipment could not enter the area due to Israel’s security restrictions, but these difficulties were overcome.
Hamas Gaza spokesman Hazem Qassim downplayed the significance of the election results, saying they had no bearing on broader national issues.
