RAMALLAH:&nbsp;Palestinians in the West Bank and a central area of Gaza began voting Saturday in 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&#39;s Deir el-Balah area, according to the Ramallah-based Central Elections Commission. Polling stations opened at 7 am (0400 GMT). AFP footage from Al-Bireh in the West Bank and Deir el-Balah in Gaza showed election officials in polling stations as Palestinians came to cast ballots. Most electoral lists are aligned with president Mahmud Abbas&#39;s secular-nationalist Fatah party or running as independents. There are no lists affiliated with Fatah&#39;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). Israeli occupation&nbsp; 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. &quot;Whether candidates are independent or partisan, it has no effect and will have no effect or benefit for the city,&quot; he told AFP. &quot;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.&quot; In many cities, including Nablus and Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, only one list has been submitted, meaning it wins automatically without needing a vote. Polling stations in the West Bank will close at 7 pm, while polls in Deir al-Balah will close at 5 pm to facilitate counting in daylight due to the lack of electricity in the war devastated strip, the elections commission told AFP. UN coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov commended the commission for organising a &quot;credible process&quot;. &quot;Saturday&#39;s elections represent an important opportunity for Palestinians to exercise their democratic rights during an exceptionally challenging period&quot;, Alakbarov said in a statement ahead of polls. &#39;Confirmation of existence&#39;Gaza, which has been under Hamas control since 2007, will see its first vote since the legislative elections of 2006, which the movement won. Abbas&#39;s Palestinian Authority is holding elections only in Deir el-Balah &quot;as an experiment (to test its own) success or failure, since there are no post-war opinion polls&quot;, Jamal al-Fadi, a political scientist at Cairo&#39;s Al-Azhar University, told AFP. Deir el-Balah was chosen as it was one of the only places in Gaza where &quot;the population has remained largely in place and not been displaced&quot; by more than two years of war between Hamas and Israel, Fadi said. Farah Shaath, 25, was excited to vote for the first time. &quot;Although it is unlike any election in the world, it is a confirmation of our continued existence in the Gaza Strip despite everything,&quot; she told AFP. The election commission says it has recruited polling staff from civil society organisations and hired &quot;a private security company to secure polling centres&quot; for the Gaza vote, spokesman Fareed Taamallah told AFP. But a source from the commission in Gaza, who asked to remain anonymous, said that &quot;Hamas police insisted on securing the electoral process in Deir al-Balah&quot;. The source added that &quot;this will be done by deploying unarmed security personnel in civilian clothing around polling centres&quot;, which number 12 in Deir el-Balah.

Middle East

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.

Articles tagged with "Fatah"

Palestinians vote in first elections since Gaza war

Palestinians vote in first elections since Gaza war