Rabia Mayet | rabiamayet@radioislam.co.za

04 May 2026

3-minute read

Half a million Palestinians, 56% from the West Bank, and 23% in Deir Al Balah in the Gaza Strip, showed up to cast their ballots in this year’s municipal elections.

Palestinian writer, researcher and translator Abdullah Maswas broke down the workings of the elections for Radio Islam listeners. The main issue behind these municipal elections, according to him, is service delivery of key utilities like water, electricity, waste collection and taxes in the West Bank and Gaza, that is controlled by Israel. The 48 territories are not even considered.

Most of the candidate list were affiliated largely with Fatah, while Hamas and other smaller parties boycotted the ballot. However, Hamas did assist at the poll with security and logistics, and Abdullah suspects that this may have been because a small number of candidates were officially connected with Hamas. Additionally, the elections are meant to serve as proof that Deir Al Balah is part of Palestine.

New legislations passed by the Palestinian Authority ahead of these elections were not successfully endorsed by all groups and parties, resulting in an uneven and inconsistent number of candidates running per region, with no candidates running at all in certain regions. In spite of a degree of corruption among factions, the main issue of service delivery is difficult to address.

Parties running for municipal elections had to endorse the political program of the PLO, the largest faction of which is Fatah. Abdullah stated that this may have been “specifically designed to exclude parties and groups that are not part of the PLO, like Hamas.” Restricting the different groups is an authoritarian move.

Abdullah emphasised that “the elections serve as a means of proving some sort of legitimacy.” Furthermore, Mahmood Abbas was supposed to step down to create room for a new election, but that did not happen.

With the both the last legislative and presidential elections being held in Palestine over two decades ago, Abdullah mentioned that these elections “don’t really mean very much.” It is difficult to assess the “political attitudes of the Palestinians” in terms of party and factional politics, but the elections themselves will not elicit change on the ground or assist in progressing towards a Free Palestine.

Listen to the full interview with Ml Sulaimaan Ravat and Abdullah Maswas here.