Fatah claimed to have achieved a “sweeping victory” in the 2026 council elections, Palestinian Authority-run WAFA News Agency reported on Sunday morning.
Fatah announced it won in the majority of local councils, including in Jenin, a northern West Bank city where the Palestinian Authority was previously accused of losing control to the Hamas-allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization. It also claimed to have formed 197 municipal and village councils by consensus in coordination with national factions.
The Ramallah-based Central Elections Commission (CEC) published that voter turnout was around 53.44%.
For the first time since 2006, Palestinians were also able to vote in Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip, though the CEC noted that only 70,000 were eligible to vote there and that turnout was only 22.7%. Approximately 5% of the ballets were deemed invalid, including 1% which were submitted blank.
The majority of those who claimed victory at the West Bank elections were supporters of PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
While the Palestinian Authority celebrated the elections as fulfilling PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s promise to make 2026 the “year of Palestinian democracy,” experts, activists, and international media outlets pointed to numerous failings in the electoral process.
In multiple West Bank cities, including Nablus and Ramallah, only one list has been submitted, meaning it wins automatically without needing a vote. Head of the Commission, Rami Hamdallah, said during a press conference in Al-Bireh on Sunday that 197 local bodies were given positions in uncontested elections.
Palestinian Marwan Ennabi told AP that he didn’t think the elections were a sign of change. From Qalqilya, where there were no slates registered, Ennabi stressed, “This isn’t transparency. This is chaos.”
Hamas was excluded from the Palestinian elections
CNN also reported that Hamas, among other terrorist parties, was excluded from the elections as participation required candidates running to recognize Israel, support a two-state solution, and accept the program of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
While Hamas was not allowed to run in the election, armed Hamas police forces surrounded the polling stations, according to footage published by the Associated Press. Analysts and locals also told Reuters that many of the names appearing on their ballot in the Gazan city were aligned with Hamas.
Preliminary results showed that the list, known as Deir al‑Balah Brings Us Together, won only two of the 15 seats contested in Gaza.
The Nahdat Deir al‑Balah list, backed by Abbas' Fatah party and the Western-backed PA, secured six seats. The remaining seats were won by two other Gaza-based groups, Future of Deir al‑Balah and Peace and Building, not affiliated with either faction.
“Holding municipal elections in Deir al-Balah is a positive and important step,” said Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem on Saturday as he called for presidential and legislative elections. “We see (the municipal elections) as an important and necessary step, and we hope they will expand to all governorates of the Gaza Strip.”
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mostafa said that there was “No doubt local elections are organized in an extremely important time, in light of complicated challenges and exceptional conditions. However, succeeding in conducting it in the West Bank and partially in the Gaza Strip constitutes an important first step on a more inclusive national path, which aims to consolidate democratic life, enhance the resilience of our national institutions, all the way to realizing all other national dues and the unity of our homeland.”
Reuters contributed to this report.