BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- The registration process for local elections ended Tuesday with 200 municipalities registering only one bloc of candidates, officials said Thursday.
The West Bank has 353 electorates but 200 of them will not be contested in October's municipal election because voters will only be able to vote for one list of candidates.
Abdul Kareem Sidir, undersecretary of the Ministry of Local Government, told Ma'an that 16 municipalities in the Jerusalem area decided to run on joint lists, which means candidates will be unopposed.
Another 184 local electorates will also have no choice on voting day, he said.
The failure to register enough candidates has alarmed rights activists.
Nasser al-Sayid of the Palestinian rights group al-Haq told Ma'an that the single-list outcome would leave local municipalities at the whims of interest groups.
"As many local bodies decided to undergo a joint list, we will face many political and social pressures and might go back to the 'law of the clans,'" al-Sayid told Ma'an.
Sidir, the local minister, said that his ministry would appoint an administrative body for each local council which did not register candidates for the election scheduled for October.
The ministry has hosted every participating faction for discussions about how to hold the elections, the official said. He said the ministry did not meet with Islamic Jihad or Hamas, as both factions are boycotting the elections.
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