Palestinian Legislative Elections Fact Sheet

Voting Process:

On January 25, Palestinians from 16 constituencies will elect 132 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), which will hold office for 4 years. Council members will choose a cabinet to serve with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas. He was voted into office in an election held in January 2005, after the death of Arafat in November 2004.

Voters will select deputies from their own constituencies as well as from 11 national lists. The national lists are:  (1) The Alternative, (2) Independent Palestine, (3) Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa list, (4) Martyr Abu el-Abbas List, (5) Freedom and Social Justice, (6) Change and Reform, (7) The National Coalition for Justice and Democracy (Wa'ad), (8) The Third Way, (9) Freedom and Independence, (10) The Palestinian Justice and finally (11) The Palestinian National Liberation Movement –Fatah.  

According to Palestinian Election Law, at least one woman should be among the first three names on any party list, at least one woman among the next four names, and at least one woman among each five names onwards.

In total six seats will be allocated to Christian candidates.

History:

This will be only the second time in the history of the PNA (Palestine National Authority) that Palestinians will vote for their representatives in the PLC. The first time that Palestinians in the Occupied Territories were allowed to vote was in 1996.

The PLC was established in 1995. It came into existence following the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, known as The Taba Agreement or Oslo II.

The PLC, along with the president, controls the Palestinian Authority.

Voting Eligibility and Access:

There are 1,550,000 eligible voters. This includes Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.  This does NOT INCLUDE the 1 million Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, OR the 4 million Palestinian Refugees living in other countries.

There will about 1,000 polling booths in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. However, the movement of Palestinians is severely restricted, which may hinder voting. A large portion of Rt.60, a main West Bank thoroughfare, has been cut off to Palestinians since August.

The Palestinian Central Elections Committee (CEC) will be in charge of carrying out and monitoring the voting.  The committee is made up of 9 members including judges, academics and lawyers.

East Jerusalem

The situation in East Jerusalem is still a major point of contention: Israel is only allowing 6,300 residents of East Jerusalem to vote in the elections. 109,000 will have to travel outside the city boundaries to vote in the Occupied Territories. As this means travelling through numerous checkpoints and barriers, many of these residents may be unable or discouraged from voting.

The reason that Israel is limiting the number of voters from East Jerusalem stems from the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians as to who has rightful control over the eastern part of the capital. According to International Law, East Jerusalem has been under Israeli Occupation since 1967, and therefore Israel should not be preventing Palestinians from participating in the political process.  Israel maintains its right to control all of the capital. By allowing only a small percentage of Palestinians living in the city to vote, it is maintaining that Palestinians are voting by post from a foreign country.

For the 5.5% of the population in East Jerusalem that is allowed to vote, there will be no polling booths. Six post offices will offer voting services. Voters will complete their ballot and put it in a box that will be sent off in bulk at the end of the voting process. 

Predicted Outcomes:

The two main contending groups are Fatah and Hamas.

Islamic Hamas is predicted to have a significant victory over the Fatah Party. Fatah is the ruling party of Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas. The United States and the European Union, claiming that Hamas is a terrorist organization, have threatened to cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority if Hamas does indeed achieve a presence in the new cabinet. Israel refuses to negotiate with a government that includes Hamas.

Many argue that by including Hamas in the political process, the group will shift from using militant tactics to democratic ones.