Kidnappings, Qassams rockets , targeted assassinations and political in-fighting are the only headliners to be found on the Palestinian Legislative elections due to take place on 25 January 2006. The unique historical significance of the elections is entirely overlooked, giving credence to the fashionable media maxim; if it bleeds, it leads.
Since the establishment of Fatah in 1959, the people of Palestine have had neither alternative representation nor alternative democratic means to voice their opposition to Fatah’s rule.
It is the first time in modern history that Palestine will undergo a fully democratic, representative electoral process. It is the first time that independent candidates representing various social groups, businessmen, public intellectuals, politicians, religious leaders and trade unionists will all stand together and in opposition to each other, to be representatives of the Palestinian people. The last Parliamentary elections were held in 1996 as part of the Oslo Peace Process and provisional in nature.
Contrary to popular narrative and perception of Palestinian society, Palestinians hold sophisticated, diverse and varied political opinions ranging the entire political spectrum just like any other society. In fact, Palestinian political trends have historically tended towards the kinds of policies attempted in present-day Europe, under what is commonly considered as ‘progressive’ or ‘third-way’ models of social and economic ordering.
The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections will choose 132 members of parliament, collectively representing a multi-member constituency from 16 electoral districts. Half the parliamentarians will be elected via national party lists allocated according to proportional representation, and the other half independent candidates elected through majority voting in each district. The result is a multi-layered system of representative democracy with guaranteed representation for women, the first of its kind in the Middle East.
Parliamentary elections were due in July 2005 and have been repeatedly delayed by the Palestinian Authority due to the Israeli occupation and the fragile internal security situation. The hundreds of checkpoints prohibiting free movement of party candidates and fragmenting Palestinian communities, the complete discontinuity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the internal political disagreements between Fatah members and supporters make the conditions for free and fair elections nearly impossible.
But just as there is no peace without freedom, there will be no free and fair elections until the Palestinian Authority has complete control over Palestinian society, the power for which is dependent on its ability to possess all aspects of statehood, including control over its land, air and sea. This is what Israel is not prepared to give, not take responsibility for.
Under such oppressive and overwhelming conditions, the Palestinian people’s determination to have democratic representation should not only be admired but supported by the international community.
While Fatah is struggling to shake off a reputation for corruption and cronyism, Hamas is gaining ground for its track record in funding social programmes and the simple premise that it will fight corruption and deliver on its promises. The overall appeal of Hamas is basically what Fatah failed to do; to look after the interests of the vast majority of Palestinian people.
An open, transparent political system and the hope for a prosperous future are what Palestinians, just like the majority in most societies, want from these elections, and is what the electoral process should be able to deliver.
It is vital these elections take place not only to rescue the confidence of a people historically denied participation in a fully democratic process, but to also rescue the remnants of a Palestinian state from free-falling into a power vacuum from which it would take years to recover.
Israel may conveniently point to the current civil unrest in the Gaza Strip as signs of PA incompetence and lawlessness, but even the IMF predicted this would be the outcome in the event of a unilateral withdrawal from the region without facilitating the Palestinian takeover of social infrastructure.
The real obstacle to the democratic process in Palestine at present is East Jerusalem. It is of central importance to Palestinians for its political, economic, social and religious significance. Without the Jerusalem vote affirming the unification of Palestinians in East Jerusalem with those in the West Bank and Gaza, the very concept of a Palestinian state is effectively dead.
Israel says elections in Jerusalem are carried out on the basis of 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement, which prohibits the participation of a party if they