The Palestinian Central Elections Commission (CEC) has started preparing for local council elections in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip to be held on Oct. 8, CEC Chairman Hanna Nasser said on Monday.
Speaking at a news conference at the CEC offices in the West Bank city of al-Bireh, Nasser said that the commission would do everything necessary to “guarantee freedom of elections,” including the freedom to run as a candidate and to run a campaign.
“Elections are a people’s right and not a favor by anybody,” Nasser said, adding that free elections also meant that both candidates and voters should accept the outcome of the elections.
Nasser said that relevant governmental institutions in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip would be contacted to help organize the elections, notably mentioning the role of the Ministry of Education to make schools available as polling stations, and that of the Ministry of Interior to handle safety and security procedures on election day.
Similar procedures will be followed in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank, Nasser added.
The last local council elections were held in 2012, two years after they had been canceled over the CEC’s inability to operate in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip at the time.
