First Palestinian Municipal Elections in 28 Years Hindered by Israeli Arrests of Candidates, Checkpoints

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UPDATE

www.palestinemonitor.org/new_web/december_update_archive.htm#first

23 December 2004

Palestinians in 26 municipalities across the West Bank will head to the polls today to vote for local councilors for the first time in three decades.

More than 140,000 voters will choose from 886 candidates, including 139 women, as they select local council officials for Jericho and 25 villages in the West Bank. A second stage of elections will take place on January 27 in ten more localities in the Gaza Strip.

Vote counting will finish three hours after the polls close, and final results will be officially announced on December 25.

All Palestinian parties and factions will participate in the Palestinian democratic process.

The Palestinian legislative council has agreed to a quota system that will guarantee at least two women elected in every municipality.

The Palestinian minister of local government, Jamal Shobakee, told the Palestine Monitor that these elections have far-reaching political implications. “The elections will support our steadfastness, as people living under occupation, by allowing us to choose our own representatives.”

He believes that if Palestinians carry out these elections successfully, it will set the stage for successful presidential and legislative elections.

Shobakee added that Israel is putting serious obstacles in the way of local elections by arresting candidates and imposing flying checkpoints in the paths of Palestinian voters.

Five election candidates have been arrested by Israeli forces in the run-up to the polls.

Qaher Hamada, a PFLP candidate, was arrested at his home in Jericho’s refugee camp in a pre-dawn operation on December 15.

Four Islamist candidates were arrested in the Dahariyeh area near Hebron the week before.

These elections are the first of their kind to be held in the Palestinian territories since 1976. Those elections turned tragic due to Israeli tactics to undermine Palestinian democracy.

The PLO had agreed at that time to allow elections for West Bank municipal councils. Of the 116 candidates elected by Palestinian voters, 96 were PLO supporters. Israeli forces tried to assassinate three Palestinian mayors in June 1980: Bassam Shaka, Karim Khalaf, and Ibrahim Attawil. Shaka’s legs had to be amputated after a bomb exploded in his car. Khalaf lost his foot when a bomb exploded in his car, and he later died of gangrene. Al-Tawil escaped death when he discovered the explosive device in his car.

Two other mayors, Mohammed Milhem and Fahd Kawasmeh, were deported to Jordan in 1980. Israeli occupation forces then removed most of the other elected mayors, including all the PLO supporters who had been elected by the people.

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