Fifteen years after Palestinians went to the last polls, about 93% of eligible voters in the West Bank and Gaza have registered for long-awaited elections, official figures Wednesday.
Palestinians over 18 were eligible to register online, by phone or in person for parliamentary elections scheduled for May 22 and a primary vote set for July 31.
The Central Electoral Commission said 2.6 million out of 2.8 million voters would qualify before Tuesday’s date.
In the previous Palestinian election, in 2006, about 80 percent of eligible voters voted 1.6 million but only about a million votes, the Commission said.
There has been widespread suspicion that the votes will go ahead, after years of turmoil between the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited autonomy in the West Bank, and Hamas Islamists, which runs Gaza.
2 צפייה בגלריה
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (R) and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh
(Photo: AP)
The 2006 ballot ended with a landslide victory by Hamas, which was running for the first time in parliamentary elections. A power struggle continued and in 2007 the militant group seized control of Gaza from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas, 85, is expected to run in the new primary election.
Palestinians also plan to hold this year’s votes in East Jerusalem, which Israel captured along with the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Six Day War and put them in motion which has not gained international fame.
Israel allowed Palestinians to vote in East Jerusalem in 2006.