Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party is ahead in most of the West Bank’s main cities after municipal elections that highlighted persistent divisions with its rival Hamas, latest results show.
Voting took place on Saturday only in the West Bank, controlled by Fatah, and not in the Gaza Strip, which is run by the Hamas terrorist organization.
Official figures put turnout at 53.4 percent, or nearly the same as local elections in the West Bank in 2012, according to electoral commission chief Hanna Nasser.
However, turnout was far lower in large cities than in surrounding communities, with the lowest in Nablus, the main city in the northern West Bank, where it was less than 21%.
Ramallah, the Palestinian political capital, saw turnout of less than 40%.
Fatah’s list was notably ahead in the cities of Jenin, Jericho and Hebron. More than half of the 536 lists participating in the elections were not registered as being affiliated with any party.
Hamas did not present candidates under its party label in the vote.
— AFP
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