The polls will close by 7 p.m., with the first results expected by late Saturday and early Sunday.
The elections, the first of their kind since the October 7 massacre in 2023, will be held in accordance with the new electoral law published on November 19, 2025, which established two different electoral systems.
Voters electing officials to municipal councils will use a proportional representation (open list) system, while a majority system (personal candidacy) will be used for village councils.
Reuters reported that “some Palestinian factions” were boycotting the elections in protest at the Palestinian Authority’s request that candidates support its agreements, which include recognition of the State of Israel.
The elections also represent the first one held in Gaza since Hamas expelled the Palestinian Authority in 2007, with the PA seeing this as an opportunity to show symbolic control of the enclave.
“I’ve been hearing about elections since I was born,” Adham Al-Bardini, a Gazan from the city of Deir al-Balah, told Reuters. “We are eager to take part … so we can change the reality imposed on us.”
Deir al-Balah will be the only city where the elections will be held, with the move seen more as a symbolic inclusion than as the PA’s return to Gaza.
It also noted that Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, has not officially nominated candidates, but one list in the Deir al-Balah elections is widely seen by residents and commentators as identifying with it.
Hamas has said it will respect the results, and Palestinian sources told Reuters ahead of the vote that the organization’s police will be deployed to secure polling stations in Gaza.
Source:
www.jpost.com
