Preface
PCHR believes that elections are the essence of democracy - democracy means a representative government of the people chosen by them through free and fair elections.
Independent monitoring over an electoral process can ensure fairness, transparency and credibility before the electorate, candidates, partisan entities and other local and international bodies. PCHR has closely monitored all stages of the presidential election in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and carried out a wide scale campaign to monitor on the ground the electoral process in the Gaza Strip. PCHR's election monitoring programme constitutes a major part of our work on the Palestinian agenda and forms part of our continued support for democratic reform in the OPT.
Our monitoring campaign commenced with monitoring the registration of electors by the Palestinian Central Election Commission (CEC) in the last quarter of 2004. This monitoring was on a smaller scale than future monitoring activities and was carried out by PCHR staff. PCHR's response to this initial registration of voters was the result of questions of the commitment of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to hold elections in the near future as no date for holding elections had been announced.
In November 2004, Interim President Fattouh announced 9 January 2005 as the date for presidential election throughout the OPT. In light of this, PCHR intensified efforts to prepare a wide scale campaign to monitor all stages of presidential election, including election campaigning, polling and counting of votes.
PCHR recruited approximately 200 observers from a pool of roughly 2000 individuals who had already received training from PCHR on democracy and human rights to act as election observers. Further, in light of our belief in the importance of civil society supporting democratic reform in general and holding free and fair elections in particular, PCHR partnered with a number of other civil society groups to further strengthen monitoring of the elections. Such partnerships were initially with Palestine Bar Association, Women's Affairs Centre and Cana'an Pedagogical Institute, but subsequently another 23 civil society groups joined PCHR's monitoring campaign.(1)
PCHR trained the observers on all aspects of the election law and the electoral process and procedures of the CEC. The observers were given a Code of Conduct and trained about reporting. PCHR submitted applications to the CEC to accredit 194 individuals as observers, in addition to 18 of our staff members who had been already accredited by the CEC to monitor the registration of electors. The CEC accredited all observers and issued observation cards. A few days before holding the presidential election, 75 observers from al-Dameer Association for Human Rights joined PCHR's monitoring campaign, thus increasing the number of observers to 287.
Parallel to its efforts at the local level, PCHR made intensive efforts to coordinate with a number of international organizations to encourage them to participate in monitoring the election. PCHR understands the importance of international observation to ensure a free and fair election. A number of international partner organizations sent delegations including from the International Commission of Jurists, International Federation for Human Rights, Christian Aid and United Civilians for Peace.
PCHR highly appreciated the constructive cooperation on the part of civil society organizations that greatly contributed to the monitoring campaign of Palestinian presidential election. Such cooperation constituted a model for joint civil society activities and cooperation that PCHR would like to continue in any future elections, including the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). The cooperation also demonstrated the strong support of civil society organizations for democratic reform and in particular their commitment to free, fair and periodic elections in the PNA.
Introduction
On 9 January 2005, the Palestinian electorate went to the polls to vote in the first presidential election under the PNA since 1996. This important development came in the context of a series of steps taken by the Palestinian leadership following the death of President Yasser Arafat which ensured quiet and peaceful transition of authority.
Despite the negative environment created by the continuous Israeli belligerent occupation and attacks launched by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) against Palestinian civilians that directly impacted the electoral process in the preceding weeks, Palestinians insisted on participating in the election. They demonstrated a spirit of determination to exercise their electoral right in the face of occupation.
On Election Day, approximately 800,000 Palestinian electors in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank territory, including East Jerusalem, went to 1,077 polling centres (2,316 individual polling stations) and participated in the elections. These figures include 70 polling centres (524 polling stations) devoted to the civil register.(2)
PCHR has always supported calls and pressured authorities to hold free and fair elections under the PNA. As part of these efforts, in cooperation with 26 local NGOs, PCHR has monitored all stages of the presidential electoral process. On Election Day, PCHR deployed approximately 300 accredited observers to all polling centres throughout the Gaza Strip and a limited number of observers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
This report details the conclusions of monitoring conducted by PCHR throughout polling and during the counting of votes in the Palestinian presidential election in the Gaza Strip.
This is the third evaluation report in a series of PCHR reports on monitoring the presidential election. PCHR has previously published: (1) 'Palestinian Elections: An Evaluation of the Pre-Election Process, Including the Conclusions of the Monitoring Process Conducted by PCHR on the Registration of Voters in the Fourth Quarter of 2004 (The Gaza Strip)' which focused on the registration of electors and preparations made by the CEC for holding elections; and (2) 'Election Campaign for the Palestinian Presidential Election of 2005: An Evaluation Report on the Election Campaign: based on the Monitoring Conducted by PCHR in Cooperation with other Civil Society Group' focusing on election campaigning conducted by the various candidates.
Our monitoring included comprehensive surveys of all polling centres in all electoral constituencies in the Gaza Strip. The conclusion of our monitoring was that the election took place peacefully, reflecting high-levels of organization, despite a number of violations by the CEC and supporters of a number of candidates and partisan entities. Of particular concern to PCHR were two measures taken by the CEC a few hours before the official closing time of the polls (19:00 hours). The CEC circulated to all electoral constituencies new instructions to officials of polling centres to allow Palestinians not registered in the final electoral register to vote, using only their identity cards and extending the period of polling in all polling centres until 21:00 hours.
Such actions violate Law 13 of 1995 relating to the Elections ("the electoral law") and its amendments. They negatively impacted the earlier efforts of the CEC to ensure free and fair elections. These measures were taken in response to pressure by the Executive, security services and the leadership of Fatah movement. However, it is our conclusion that these two measures did not damage the essence of the electoral process nor significantly affect the final results.
The ability of the Palestinian people to hold elections under occupation is impressive. PCHR hopes that the violations observed, including those perpetrated by the CEC, will be resolved before upcoming elections. PCHR highly appreciated the efforts taken by the CEC to successfully organize the presidential election, and its cooperation with regard to the observations raised by PCHR throughout our monitoring.
Efficiency of Polling Centres
In general, polling centres were observed by PCHR to be suitable venues for holding elections. Generally, these centres allowed both polling and counting of votes to be undertaken smoothly and in the presence of election officials, observers and candidate's representatives. Excluding a few cases, observers did not criticise the capacity of polling centres and did not report that venues undermined their ability to monitor polling and counting of votes.
Polling stations were also observed to be laid out appropriately so that electors could vote in privacy inside polling cabins. In a few cases, observers raised concerns regarding the proximity of polling cabins to one another, but election officials immediately reacted to correct these questions.
Further, polling centres were generally easily identified and marked. In each centre, there were signs that educated electors of the voting procedures and to the location of the polling stations. Some observers noted in the evening the lack of appropriate lighting, especially near polling stations, made it difficult for some electors to identify their polling stations. These observers also noted that electricity was cut to some polling stations in the evening and candles were used instead. Some observers reported that electricity had been deliberately cut to a number of polling stations by unknown persons. Specific observations relating to lighting at polling centres included:
- Electricity was deliberately cut to the polling centre at Tunis Secondary School for Boys in Gaza (No. 1152).
- Electricity was deliberately cut to the polling centre at Subhi Abu Karsh Basic Coed School in Gaza (No. 1151).
- The routes leading to the polling centre at Salah Khalaf Higher Basic School in Gaza for Boys (No. 0809) were not properly lighted. The voters faced difficulties in finding their polling stations. In addition, electricity was cut to the centre for 15 minutes during the polling. Later, it was cut again and candles were used for lighting.
- The polling centre at Anas Bin Malik Higher Basic School for Boys in Gaza (No. 1154) had poor lighting.
- Electricity was cut to the polling centre at Al Nusairat Municipality Kindergarten in Deir al-Balah constituency (No. 0876) for five minutes during which time candles were used. During this period, chaos spread over the centre and supporters of some candidates entered polling stations.
Notes:
(1) Please see the back cover of this report for a complete list of all the organisations participating in PCHR's monitoring campaign.
(2) The PLC amended the electoral law (Law 13, 1995) to supplement the electoral register (consisting of the names of persons who registered to vote) with the civil register. The civil register was compiled by the Israel occupation authorities in the early 1990s and is a list of people who were recorded as receiving identity cards. The amended electoral law allows persons who have not registered to vote but who are recorded on the civil register to vote at special polling centres.
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