RAMALLAH (Ma'an) – The Palestinian Authority (PA) decided on Tuesday that municipal councils that had resigned from office in order to run in local elections would return to their original offices until the recently postponed elections were resumed.
The statement added that the PA would task the minister of local governance with implementing the legal procedures related to the decision.
Local elections in Palestine unraveled in recent weeks, with the Palestinian government postponing the elections for four months after coming under heavy criticism after the Palestinian Supreme Court announced that the elections would exclude the besieged Gaza Strip.
A poll recently released by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) found that 61 percent of respondents were displeased by the Supreme Court’s initial decision to postpone the municipal elections, with 60 percent believing that the decision was politically motivated.
Prior to their cancellation, the municipal elections were set to be the first in the Gaza Strip in a decade, after Hamas’ victory in the 2006 vote erupted into a violent conflict between Hamas and Fatah, as both groups attempted to take control of the besieged coastal enclave.