Facts about PA Elections

From Al-Akhbar, 9 January, 1996

• The 7 major Palestinian factions call tomorrow's PA election the sanctification by ballot of Yasser Arafat's dictatorship under the shadow of Israeli occupation, while the Central Election Commission calls it "the beginning of a new democratic chapter in the history of Palestine."
• A closure has been imposed on the territories from 4 a.m. this morning until the same time Sunday morning as part of the tight security arrangements.
• Thousands of Palestinian policemen were deployed at polling stations yesterday to monitor election.
• The most prominent election monitor, former US president Jimmy Carter, arrived yesterday, heading a delegation from his Atlanta-based Carter Center. Carter said some independent candidates had been kept off Palestinian television and radio. "In the Palestinian community, independent and other candidates have not been given access to the electronic media. This has not been fair," Carter told a news conference in east Jerusalem, Reuter reported. "There has also been a pattern of intimidation," Carter said. "Some of the most prominent human rights observers, human rights activists among the Palestinians have been arrested, distinguished journalists have been arrested ...this intimidation has not been helpful."
• The elections come in the wake of the assassination of the Hamas's Yihye Ayyash and recent arrests by Palestinian Police of activists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. One was arrested in Ramallah for sticking up posters calling for a boycott of the elections. Three others were arrested on suspicion of attacks on Jewish settlers in Bethlehem this week. Weeks before PA arrested human rights activists and number of jounalists.
• In Hebron, elections will be held while IDF is still present. Only uniformed and unarmed Palestinian inspectors will patrol the 68 polling stations while IDF troops stay away. IDF troops will come back as soon as election is over.
• In Jerusalem Israeli police will be in charge of security. The vote is counted as a postal vote and the ballot boxes resemble post boxes, with slots on the side instead of on top. When voting ends at 7 p.m. Israeli postal workers will take these boxes to the checkpoint in north Jerusalem and hand them to Palestinian election officials.
• The number of representatives varies approximately according to population. The largest is Gaza City with 12, Hebron 10, Nablus 8, Khan Yunis 8, North Gaza 7, Ramallah 7, Jerusalem 7, Jenin 6, Central Gaza 5, Rafah 5, Bethlehem 4, Tulkarm 4, Kalkilya 2, Jericho 1, Salfit 1, and Tubas 1. Districts like Hebron (voting population 133,000) complain they should have more representatives than Gaza City, with a voting population of 123,000. The discrepancies give Gaza 42% of the seats, though it has 36% of the voting population.
• The parties boycotting the elections is as follows: Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular and Democratic Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine are officially boycotting the election.
• The parties participating in the election is as follows: There are 76 Fatah candidates and 21 from the People's Party (newly formed Fatah party lead by PA negotiator Yaser AbedRabuh), and a handful each from smaller parties; though many of the 506 independents are identified with Fatah, its partner FIDA, and other smaller parties like Haidar Abdel-Shafi's National Democratic Coalition (formerly Movement for Building Democracy). There are 27 women candidates.
• More than 3500 Palestinian prisoners don't have the right to vote, while PA police do. Other Palestinians were denied registrations on grounds of being late and lack of registration cards.
• Up to now there is still a dispute on the number of people who have the right to vote. Israel says 955,000. The Palestinian Central Election Committee says 1,028,280. The difference indicates that several thousand voters have been vetoed by Israel because they did not fulfill requirements such as residency qualifications.
• According to the Israeli requirement of residency qualifications, Arafat disqualifies from running for elections or even voting for others.

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