The rigged municipal elections to the bourgeois Palestinian Authority (PA) in April came at the direct intervention of western imperialists, expressing the only kind of ‘democracy’ they have ever brought to the Arab region. With murderous Zionism unleashed across Gaza and the West Bank, and the Fatah-led PA at pains to prove its usefulness as loyal puppets of imperialism, popular resistance groups were barred from standing. Despite the total siege of Gaza and exclusion of most Palestinians, this electoral charade was hailed by British and EU imperialists. They back the PA as a means to liquidate the Palestinian resistance.
Following the 25 April vote, PA president Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah claimed a ‘sweeping victory,’ heralding in particular its ascendancy in Jenin, where resistance group Islamic Jihad had won previously. But this new poll was a stitch-up. In 2025, Abbas imposed a new electoral law by presidential decree, stipulating that all candidates must endorse the political platform of the PA and Fatah-run PLO, including support for collaboration with the Zionist occupation. Restricting involvement further, the law decreed that the only permissible slates were those which could fill an entire municipal council; voters would also have their ballots disqualified if they did not choose five candidates from the same list. Resistance factions and progressive parties therefore boycotted the election.
Voting took place in only 183 out of 429 constituencies in the West Bank and Gaza. According to critic Mustafa Barghouti, ‘49 communities had no list whatsoever. Nobody wanted to run.’ 197 constituencies had only one voting option. Under total Zionist siege and cantoned off from the rest of Gaza, the city of Deir al-Balah was hailed by the PA as symbolic of its hoped-for continuity with the West Bank. Yet only 21% participated in Deir al-Balah. National participation was 17%.
Despite the clearly corrupt and dictatorial nature of the PA charade, Britain joined EU states in immediately welcoming the elections as ‘an important step towards expanding democracy and enhancing local governance.’ European politicians promote ‘democratic reforms’ and the repressive PA machinery to regurgitate the two-state solution, counterposed to Trump’s Board of Peace, to disarm and rule over the Palestinian people. No legislative elections have taken place since 2006.
Louis Brehony
