GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — As soon as the Palestinian Central Elections Commission (CEC) announced Aug. 25 that the nomination process for the local elections had ended, several electoral lists and candidates across the West Bank started to withdraw their candidacies after having allegedly been told not to run by Palestinian security forces and anonymous parties under threat.

These threats, which included detention and deprivation of salary, were made against electoral lists opposing the Palestinian Authority and the Fatah movement, such as the Palestinian left and Hamas. The homes of some candidates such as Noureddine Khalaf, who was nominated for the Burqin town list in Jenin, came was shot at in Nablus and Jenin in the northern West Bank. Other candidates and their families were severely beaten by unknown assailants.

In the Gaza Strip, the Fatah movement accused the security forces affiliated with the Hamas government of arresting a candidate. In response to these accusations, the Gaza police said Aug. 30, “Ibrahim Abu Ali from Khan Yunis was arrested after one of his relatives submitted a complaint against him based on a family issue.”

Badran Jaber, a leader of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), told Al-Monitor, “Many candidates in the city of Hebron were subjected to harassment and threats by members of the Palestinian security forces and Fatah in a bid to discourage them from participating in the Palestinian leftist lists.”