At least 138840 Palestinians are illegible voters in the third stage of the Palestinian local government elections in the West Bank.
2274 candidates including 558 women compete over 814 seats of 82 municipal and village councils spread on 293 polling stations, Palestinian sources reported.
These elections are held amidst an escalation of violence between the Israeli army and the Palestinian resistance fighters which started six days ago when Israel launched its military operation called, ‘the first rain,’ which is targeting the resistance groups in the west Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Minister of Local Governments, Jamal Al-Shoubaki, chair of the central election committee, called upon the international community to support the Palestinian people and to provide protection and the needed support to enable the Palestinians to carry out the elections.
On the other hand, the Islamic Resistance Movement, (Hamas) described the arrest of some of its members; most of them are running for these elections, as an unjustified and illegal interference in Palestinian internal affairs.
Hamas had a strong showing in the first and the second stages of the local elections in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian sources reported that so far the voters’ rate is high in most of the locations in the districts.
Al-Shobaki said that the election committee spotted some violations of the election law in some areas, yet stopped short of naming these areas.
