Polling stations opened their doors on Saturday morning to receive approximately 1.3 million citizens to elect their representatives in 183 local bodies.Voters are casting their ballots in 491 centers comprising 1,922 polling stations, and the voting process will continue until 7:00 PM on Saturday.The elections include 90 municipal councils, including Deir al-Balah, in which 321 electoral lists comprising 3,773 candidates are competing, in addition to 93 village councils in which 1,358 candidates are competing for seats.The 2026 local elections will be held in accordance with the new election law issued on November 19, 2025, which established two different electoral systems: the proportional representation system (open list) for municipal councils, and the majority system (individual candidacy) for village councils.The voting process in municipal councils is done by placing a checkmark inside the box to the right of only one electoral list, and then choosing five candidates from the same list.In village councils, the voter chooses five male and female candidates from among the names that appear on the ballot paper.The vote counting process takes place inside the polling stations in the presence of observers, list agents and journalists, and the results are documented in official records that are posted on the doors of the stations, before being transferred to the central data entry center.The Central Election Commission is scheduled to announce the final results tomorrow, Sunday, during a press conference, and they will be subject to appeal before the Election Court within one week of their announcement. In Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, the first local municipal elections were launched this morning, after a hiatus of 20 consecutive years. Citizens began flocking to polling stations spread throughout the city, where the number of those eligible to vote is estimated at 70,000 citizens.The election committee identified 12 locations spread across the main areas and near residential communities in Deir al-Balah, to facilitate the voting process for citizens, and to ensure that the largest possible number of them vote in the elections.Four electoral lists are competing during the election process: the “Peace and Construction” list, “Deir al-Balah Unites Us,” “Future of Deir al-Balah,” and the “Renaissance of Deir al-Balah” list.Each electoral list includes 15 candidates, among them at least four women, and the mayor will be elected from among them.It is worth noting that the last elections held in the Gaza Strip were in 2006, and no elections have been held since, due to the continued Palestinian division. Local council elections in Deir al-Balah, West Bank
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