Over 1 million are eligible to vote in the elections in the occupied West Bank and 70,000 in Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip, according to the election authority in Ramallah.
The elections in the West Bank include local councils that oversee water, roads and electricity, while the elections in Gaza are largely symbolic and are seen as a test for possible future elections.
The idea is to connect the West Bank and Gaza politically under one and the same system, says Fareed Taamallah, spokesman for the Electoral Commission.
The local elections are the first in the Gaza Strip since Hamas won the 2006 parliamentary elections and violently seized power there the following year from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, which runs a limited form of self-rule in the West Bank.
