Municipal elections were held between December 2004 and December 2005, to elect members of local councils in the
Palestinian Territories
The Palestinian territories are the two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been militarily occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, namely: the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. The I ...
. The elections were approved by President
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...
of the
Palestinian National Authority
The Palestinian National Authority (PA or PNA; ar, السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية '), commonly known as the Palestinian Authority and officially the State of Palestine, (PNA), before his death on 11 November 2004. They were administered by the Higher Committee for Local Elections (HCLE), a body established under the authority of the Ministry for Local Government, an institution of the Palestinian National Authority.
It were the first local elections held by the PNA. Previous municipal elections were held in 1972 and 1976, organized by the Israeli occupation power.
Proceeding
The elections were scheduled to take place in five rounds, but the fifth was not carried out, because of the situation in Palestinian Territories after the formation of a
Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
-led government.
Approximately 25% of Palestinians lived in districts that did not have elections.
* The first round of elections was held in two parts; the first part on 23 December 2004 in 22 localities in the
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
and the second on 27 January 2005 in 14 localities in the
Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...
. The seats were allocated according to the simple majority system (districts).
* The second round was held on 5 May 2005 in 76 localities in the West Bank and 6 in the Gaza Strip. The seats were again allocated according to the simple majority system (districts).
* The third round of local elections was held on 29 September 2005 in 104 localities in the West Bank only. In this round the seats were allocated according to the proportional representation system (lists).
* The fourth round of local elections was held on 15 December 2005 in 37 population centers in the West Bank and 3 in the Gaza Strip. Seats were also allocated in this round according to the proportional representation system (lists). In some districts elections were canceled.
votersresults
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In the first two rounds, council members were elected by Bloc voting election system, and the third and fourth by Party-list proportional representation
Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a subset of proportional representation electoral systems in which multiple candidates are elected (e.g., elections to parliament) through their position on an electoral list. They can also be us ...
.
Jerusalem Governorate
The Jerusalem electoral district was divided into two zones:
* The area of East Jerusalem annexed by Israel with 250,000 Palestinians, holding Israeli ID cards.
* The remaining area with 27 Palestinian residential localities, which were occupied, but not annexed.
See also
* Municipal election in Bethlehem, 2005
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Palestinian local elections, 2004-2005
2004 elections in Asia
2005 elections in Asia
2004
2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO).
Events January
* January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...
2004 in the Palestinian territories
2005 in the Palestinian territories
Local elections in Palestine