Ammon News - Polling stations opened at 7:00 AM on Saturday, with around 1.3 million eligible voters expected to cast their ballots to elect representatives in 183 local councils.

Voting is taking place across 491 polling centers comprising 1,922 stations, and is scheduled to continue until 7:00 p.m. the same day.

The elections include 90 municipal councils, among them Deir al-Balah, where 321 electoral lists with 3,773 candidates are competing, in addition to 93 village councils with 1,358 candidates vying for seats.

The Palestinian Central Elections Commission is scheduled to hold a press conference later on Saturday to provide updates on the voting process and respond to media inquiries. The Commission will also announce the voter turnout rate in the local elections every three hours throughout election day.

The 2026 local elections will be held in accordance with the new election law issued on November 19, 2025, which introduces two voting systems: proportional representation (open list) for municipal councils, and a majority-based individual candidacy system for village councils.

Voting in municipal councils involves placing a checkmark in the box to the right of only one electoral list and then selecting five candidates from that list. In village councils, voters select five candidates from the names appearing on the ballot.

Regarding the vote counting process, the votes will take place at the polling stations immediately after voting concludes, in the presence of observers, list representatives, and journalists. Preliminary results will be posted at each station before being aggregated at a central data processing center.

Final results are expected to be announced on Sunday by the Central Elections Commission, including vote counts, seat distribution, names of winning candidates, and overall turnout. The results will remain subject to appeals before the elections court within one week of their announcement.

WAFA