Date 8 October 2016 | Location Palestinian territories | |
The Palestinian cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, announced on 23 June 2016 a decision to hold municipal elections on 8 October 2016. The elections were suspended by the Palestinian Court in early September and on January 2017 they were set to 13 May 2017. The elections are expected to be the first elections in all of the Palestinian territories since Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, as Hamas agreed to participate in the local elections and allow them to be held in the Gaza Strip but disagreements between Hamas and Fatah led to Hamas boycotting stating it will participate only after "ending disagreements, achieving reconciliation, and uniting Palestinian institutions, including at the political, judicial, and security levels"
Contents
According to a statement from the Palestinian Ministers Council, elections will be conducted as an "attempt to end national conflict and unite Palestinians in accordance with the law and to pave the road towards holding presidential and legislative elections."
Background
The last Palestinian local elections were held in 2012, excluding the Gaza Strip, where Hamas rules since 2007 and since has boycotted the local elections based in the Fatah controlled Palestinian authority. On 20 July 2016 Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas's political bureau member, said in a speech that Hamas is willing to participate in local elections in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank "no matter the circumstances". Hayya explained the reason behind Hamas’ approval to conduct and participate in the elections, saying, "These elections are local and aimed at serving a cause, so let us put all our efforts and dedication to serve our community and prioritize partnership." Analysts said Hamas decided to participate in the local elections, taking advantage of Fatah's internal crisis.
In a 28 July 2015 interview of Al-Monitor and Kayed al-Ghul, a PFLP's political bureau member, it was revealed that five Palestinian left-wing factions: PFLP, DFLP, FIDA, PPP and PNI have agreed to form a unified list for the first time in history, consisting of figures chosen by the parties. Ghul explained that one of the motives of the left-wing parties to create the list was the need to "break the acute polarization between Fatah and Hamas plaguing the Palestinian society" since 2007. Talal Abu Zarifa, a member of the DFLP’s political bureau said the left-wing parties had contacts with other factions (such as Hamas and Fatah) but denied any alliance with them. In the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, the left-wing parties which at the time ran in separated lists obtained 8% of the votes. Zarifa said the left-wing parties are not building on surpassing their previous goals in 2006, but he thinks there is a positive feeling now when the parties are unified. Talal Okal, a writer and political analyst said he believes the left-wing parties can rise in the elections. In contrast, Saleh Abdel Jawad, a professor of political science at Birzeit University and Hani Habib, a political writer for Al-Ayyam newspaper said they are not expecting a great success for the left-wing, as it constitutes a small portion of the Palestinian society.
The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine (PIJ) announced in 8 August 2016 that it will boycott the upcoming elections, claiming it is not an "appropriate way out of the Palestinian national impasse" and instead called for Hamas to reconcile with its rival faction Fatah and achieve national unity.
Participants
The Central Election Commission began receiving applications for registrations of candidatures on August 16, 2016, with August 25, 2016 as the deadline for registrations. The Democratic Alliance List (consisting of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), Palestinian Democratic Union (FIDA), Palestinian People's Party (PPP) and the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI)) filed its registration on August 16, 2016.
Fatah had announced that it would contest the elections under the name 'National Liberation and Construction Bloc'. In a statement on August 15, 2016 Fatah spokesman Dr. Fayez Abu Eita declared that municipal subcommittees were working across the country to finalize the lists of candidates before the Central Election Commission deadline.
Hamas had announced that it would field candidatures of non-partisan professionals. Hamas would retain the candidature name 'Change and Reform' from past elections.
Four smaller PLO factions; the Palestine Liberation Front, the Arab Liberation Front, the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front and the Palestinian Arab Front, have announced that they would contest the elections together as the 'National Democratic Coalition'. When presenting the National Democratic Coalition on August 16, 2016, its leaders stressed that the Coalition was in alliance with Fatah.
On August 22, 2016 an independent list for the municipal council of Gaza City, 'Gaza Appeal', was registered with the Central Election Commission.
As of August 25, 2016 four lists for the Nablus municipal election were known: Democratic Alliance List headed by Majida Al-Masri, the Independent Youths' List headed by Mohammad Jihad Ad-Dawikat, Nablus for All headed by Adly Yaish (an alliance between Yaish and Fatah) and the Independent Professionals' List headed by Mohammad Ash-Shinar.
After the deadline of nominations had closed, the Central Elections Commission published preliminary lists of candidates. Out of 416 municipalities and villages councils, in 38 cases no candidate lists had been submitted. In 182 cases only a single candidate list had been submitted, winning the election by default. In the Gaza Strip all localities had multiple lists, though. The Central Elections Commission received 163 objections to the initial listing of candidates, out of which six requests were accepted by the Commission.