Law No. (10) of 2005 on Local Councils’ Elections

The Law was issued on August 15, 2005, which adopts a proportional representation system (lists) in the elections of local councils, based on which the third and fourth phases of the 2005 Local Elections were carried out.

On July 10, 2012, the Palestinian Cabinet issued a resolution calling for conducting elections for local councils throughout the country, scheduled for October 20, 2012 in reference to this law.

According to this law, nomination is done through closed electoral lists concealing the names of its candidates on the ballot paper. The order of candidates on the list follows their priority, given that the number of candidates per list should not be less than the number of the majority of seats dedicated to the council of that local authority. Any list that passes the threshold of (8%) or more of valid votes, obtains a number of council seats proportional to the total number of valid votes it obtained. The seats obtained by any list are allocated to its candidates according to their order on the list, following “Sainte-Laguë” method for counting seats.

The area of each local authority is considered one electoral district. Each local authority is allocated a number of members dependent on the number of residents of the community that local authority belongs to.