More than 84,500 West Bank residents have registered to vote in the municipal elections which will be held in Judaea and Samaria in April. In 1972, when municipal elections were held for the first time under Israeli administration, only 31,700 voters registered.
The increase is attributed to a growing interest in local government and the recent decision by the authorities to extend the voting rights to all family members and not just wage-earners. The Jordanian election law, which still applies to the West Bank, had in the past restricted the franchise to the head of the family. The current voters list now includes 30,000 women who will be voting for the first time. However, most of the women have reportedly registered on their husbands’ initiative rather than their own.
Some 2000 women have registered in ultraconservative Hebron where 10,000 men have the right to vote. In Tulkarm, 3000 women have registered along with 7000 men, and in Nablus the voters’ list contains 3500 women and 18,000 men. In 1972, only 6577 men registered to vote in Nablus, the largest city on the West Bank.
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