PA Announces Municipal Elections for West Bank, Gaza

The Palestinian Authority announced that it will hold municipal elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in December. It will be the first municipal elections held in the West Bank since 2017. The elections will be held to elect municipal officers in 388 municipalities and local councils, which were dissolved by the PA in June when their terms expired. The councils have been governing in a caretaker role since then,

There have not been municipal elections in Gaza since 2007, when Hamas came to power there. It is not clear that Hamas will allow the municipal elections to go forward in December.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has spent 15 years in office after being elected for a four-year term, in April cancelled scheduled legislative and presidential elections set for May and July, after Israel did not guarantee that Palestinians in eastern Jerusalem, amounting to a few thousand votes, would be able to go to public polls.