Voting begins for the 2017 Local Council Elections

The CEC Chairman, Dr. Hanna Nasir, announced today the commencement of voting for the 2017 local council elections during a press conference held this morning at CEC’s media center, in the presence of Commissioners, Mr. Shukri Al-Nashashibi and Dr. Khawla Al-Shakhsher.

Polling centers across the 11 West Bank districts were open from 7:00 am and will remain open until 7:00 pm. 787,386 eligible electors in the West Bank are expected to cast their votes in 451 polling centers across 145 localities.  A total of 536 electoral lists will be competing today for 1561 council seats. 

Dr. Nasir has called for widest participation on the elections day, to which all arrangements have been made to facilitate access of voters to polling centers to cast their votes.

Dr. Nasir has also called upon political parties, candidate lists, and election stakeholders to adhere to elections code of conduct and abide by the elections law and regulations to ensure smooth progress of elections.

Poling and counting will be conducted in the presence of hundreds of local and international observers and guests. Once polling centers are closed at 7:00 pm., counting of votes begins immediately in each station. The votes obtained by each list will be declared at the station level once counting in each station is completed. The total votes obtained by each list will be gathered from all stations at the locality level and published at the premises of each locality council. The preliminary election results will be announced, as scheduled, tomorrow evening during a press conference the CEC will organize for this purpose at CEC’s media center. 

It should be indicated that in addition to the 145 localities in which elections are being held today, there are 181 localities in which only one electoral list in each was nominated and thus, lists will win by acclamation. Moreover, 65 localities had no nominated lists and the decision of the formation of their councils falls upon the Cabinet.