The last municipal elections in Nazareth during the Mandate period were held in 1946, with limited voting rights and contested results. Soon after the city was occupied in 1948, residents and public figures led by MAKI (Communist Party of Israel) and its affiliated union demanded new municipal elections. The Israeli Military Government (MG) acted to prevent new elections, believing that any election would be won by Communists, whom it viewed as dangerous to the state image and to its plans for Judaizing the Galilee. In 1954, due to increasing public pressure to replace the ineffectual municipality leadership, elections were held in the city. Drawing on an array of sources, state archives, MAKI archives, and Arabic newspapers of the period I will show that the municipality of Nazareth exemplifies the unique interplays of Israeli democratic procedures and colonial technologies. Hence, it offers a rich arena of exploration of the interaction between political and economic realities, state control mechanisms and local reactions. While the Israeli state and the MG did all they could to make sure that the municipal council would suppress expressions of nationalism and dissent, the Palestinian residents’ used council politics to affirm their identifications and express their citizenship. In the 1954 elections the MG’s methods included the creation of sectarian-based parties, complete with candidate lists, and their campaigns. Despite the MG’s best efforts, MAKI still gained a significant portion of the votes. The MG then moved to form an “anti-Communist coalition” in the municipality, through exerting strong pressure on all other parties. During the struggle over the municipal council, MAKI and its supporters viewed the municipality not only as the chief representative body of the residents on local issues, but also as a body that carried national importance, in that it was expected to protect the Arabness of the city and represent the Palestinian national aspirations of its residents. For the MG, and the government it represented, the municipality of Nazareth became a threat, a body that was to be penetrated, managed and controlled. The struggle over the municipality continued until the end of the MG years, which saw opportunities for new Arab political expression but also the reproduction of sectarian politics that were born or cultivated during that time.