;\dfZiXZp`e:feÕ`Zk EFI;<DJG<:@8CI<GFIK)''- 9pE`cj9lk\ejZ_µeXe[Bi\MfccXe `m\:fleZ`c`ek_\FZZlg`\[GXc\jk`e`XeK\ii`kfip)''+$)''- I\gfikfe<c\Zk`fej]fiCfZXc:fleZ`cj#Gi\j`[\ek#Xe[C\^`jcXk Democracy in Confl ict Report on Elections for Local Councils, President, and Legislative Council in the Occupied Palestinian Territory 2004-2006. By Nils Butenschøn and Kåre Vollan Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo Nils Butenschøn and Kåre Vollan: Democracy in Confl ict A NORDEM Special Report on Elections for Local Councils, President, and Legislative Council in the Occupied Palestinian Territory 2004-2006 Copyright: the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights/NORDEM and Nils Butenschøn and Kåre Vollan Text from this report may be reprinted if accompanied by source information This report is available on the web pages of NCHR/NORDEM: www.humanrights.uio.no/english NORDEM, the Norwegian Resource Bank for Democracy and Human Rights, is a programme of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights (NCHR) The NCHR is a cross-disciplinary Centre at the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo. The Centre is Norway’s National institution for Human Rights University of Oslo Norwegian Centre for Human Rights/NORDEM P.O. Box 6706 St. Olavs Plass Visiting address: Universitetsgaten 22 – 24 Telephone: +47 22 84 20 01 Telefax: +47 22 84 20 02 E-mail: [email protected] ISBN 10: 82-8158-035-6 ISBN 13: 978-82-8158-035-0 Front page illustration: Copyright: Suhaib Salem/Reuters/Scanpix Reprinted by permission from Scanpix Produced and printed by: Mediehuset GAN 01/07 Editor: Hege Mørk 2 Preface The fi rst elections organised by the Palestinian Authority established on the basis of the Oslo Accords were held in 1996. When new elections on the Occupied Palestinian Territory were planned for 2005 and 2006, NORDEM recognised a need to assess and analyse the elections processes that had taken place more indepth and coherently. NORDEM initiated a research project in order to publish a specialised report, and Mr. Nils Butenchøn and Mr. Kåre Vollan were asked to take on the assignment which they accepted to do. The idea was to produce a report along the same lines as the report published in 1996 “Interim Democracy. Report on the Palestinian Elections, Januray 1996” written by the same authors. Nils Butenschøn is Associate Professor of International Relations at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, and has followed Palestinian and Israeli politics over many years. In the current report he covers the legal and political contexts that should be taken into consideration for a broader understanding of the elections themselves. Kåre Vollan has as an independent international expert on election processes participated in the elaboration of the new Palestinian Election Law and has ex- tensive knowledge of the processes and stakeholders who were involved in the preparations to the elections. He was also assigned by the Ministry of Foreign Af- fairs as an advisor during the Presidential Election in 2005 and to work with the Palestinian Central Election Commission when a referendum was planned in the summer of 2006. In relation to both the Palestinian Presidential Election in January 2005 and the election to the Palestinian Legislative Council in January 2006, Norway also contributed through NORDEM with altogether 21 observers to the EU Election Observation Missions established in connection to mentioned elections. NORDEM Reports have been written and published for both these elections sep- arately and can be found at www.humanrights.uio.no. The report has been supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Hege Mørk Programme Director NORDEM. 3 4 List of Contents Preface 3 List of Abbreviations and Expressions 9 Introduction 13 1. The Legal Framework of the Palestinian Authority 17 3 1.1 Introduction 17 3 1.2 The Occupied Palestinian Territory in International Law. The Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice 18 3 1.3 The Oslo Accords and the Question of ‘Permanent Status’ 21 3 1.4 The Status of the PA in the “Oslo Framework”. A Brief Summary 23 3 1.5 The Basic Law 25 3 1.6 Concluding Remarks 26 2. The Political Framework 29 3 2.1 The Undecided Aim of the Peace Process 29 3 2.2 Competing and Asymmetrical Processes of State-building 31 3 2.3 1996-2000: The Stumbling Peace Process 33 3 2.4 The Disintegration of Political Authority 37 3 2.5 The raise of Hamas 40 3 2.6 The Secular Opposition: A Third Force? 42 3 2.7 The Al-Aqsa Intifada and Beyond 44 3 2.8 The Further Advance of Hamas into Palestinian Body Politics 46 3. The 1996 Elections 55 4. The Block Vote System – First-Past-the-Post in Multi-Member Constituencies 57 5. The Election Legislation. Background and Features 63 3 5.1 The Oslo Accords and the 1995 Election Law 63 3 5.2 The Basic Law 65 3 5.3 The 1995 Election Law as Amended for the Presidential Election in 2005 67 5 3 5.4 The General Election Law of 2005 67 3 5.5 The Local Election Law 77 6. The International Pressure for Palestinian Reform and Elections 81 3 6.1 The Quartet and the Roadmap 81 3 6.2 The Task Force on Palestinian Reform 84 3 6.3 The Delegations Assessing Condition for Meaningful Elections in 2002 85 7. A New System of Representation and the Drafting of a New Election Law 89 3 7.1 Some NGO Initiatives 89 3 7.2 The Drafting by the PLC Legal Committee 91 3 7.3 The PLC Readings 97 8. The Voter Registration 103 3 8.1 The Preparatory Steps 103 3 8.2 Voter Registration Statistics 105 3 8.3 Voter Registration in Jerusalem 107 9. The Presidential Elections on 9 January 2005 109 3 9.1 Main Assessment 109 3 9.2 Freedom of Movement 111 3 9.3 Elections in East Jerusalem 111 3 9.4 The Legal Framework 112 3 9.5 Voter Registration 113 3 9.6 The CEC Decision to Change the Rules on Election Day 114 3 9.7 The Results 116 3 9.8 Election Observation 117 3 9.9 Conclusions 118 10. The Local Elections in 2004 and 2005 119 3 10.1 The Election Administrative Bodies 121 3 10.2 The Election Administration 122 3 10.3 The Voters Registers 123 3 10.4 Observations from Election Days 124 3 10.5 Election Appeals 125 3 10.6 Election Results 126 3 10.7 The Impact on the PLC Electoral System 128 11. The PLC Elections 129 3 11.1 General 129 3 11.2 Election Administration 129 3 11.3 Registration of Parties 130 3 11.4 Nomination of Candidates 133 3 11.5 Voting by Security Personnel 135 6 3 11.6 The Overall Assessment of the Elections Process 137 3 11.7 Freedom of Movement 140 3 11.8 Publication of Results 141 3 11.9 Results Analysis 141 3 11.10 Polling Centres, Polling Stations and Election Observation 144 3 11.11 Exit Polls 144 12. The Announced Referendum on the Prisoners’ Document 145 3 12.1 Background 145 3 12.2 Referenda in a Palestinian Context 146 3 12.4 Future Referenda 149 13. Recommendations for the Future 151 3 13.1 Elections under Occupation 151 3 13.2 Systems of Representation 151 3 The PLC 151 3 The Presidency 154 3 13.3 Common Law on Elections and Referenda 154 3 13.4 Election Administration 154 3 13.6 Referenda 155 3 13.7 Partial Results 156 3 13.8 Rules for Quotas in Municipal Elections 156 3 13.9 Updating the Voters Registers 156 3 13.10 The Regulations of the District Election Offi ces 156 Appendix 1 158 The casualties in the Palestinian – Israeli confl ict from October 2000 to June 2006. Appendix 2 159 List of electoral laws being referred to in the report Appendix 3 160 From Annex II to the Israeli- Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip of 28 September 1995 ARTICLE VI 160 Appendix 4 162 The Cairo Declaration 17 March 2005 Appendix 5 163 Full Text of the National Conciliation Document of the Prisoners (“Prisoners’ Document”), May 11, 2006 7 Appendix 6 168 Overall Seats Distribution – PLC 2006 Appendix 7 169 The List PR Results – PLC 2006 169 8 List of Abbreviations and Expressions Block vote: A plurality based system (FPTP) in multi-member constituencies. CEC: The Central Election Commission – Palestine. CEO: Chief Election Offi cer. Compensatory seats: Seats allocated on the basis of the total results of an election in order to produce a result for the full membership of an elected council as close as possible to a proportional one. Compensatory seats are used where part of the seats are distributed based upon geographical constituencies and the result when added up for the whole country or territory will generally not be proportional. The proportional part of the MMP system consists of compensatory seats and in many countries compensatory seats are used in combination with proportional elections in multi-member constituencies. Constituencies: (Most often) geographical units or district organised for electoral purposes. CR: Civil registers. DEC: District Election Commission. DOP (Oslo I): Declaration of Principles on Interim self-Government Arrangements 1993. ERSG: Election Reform Support Group. FPTP or First-past-the-post: A system of representation where the candidate(s) with the highest number of votes are elected. HCLE: The High Commission for Local Elections ICJ: International Court of Justice. IDF: Israeli Defence Forces 9 IFES: Originally “Foundation for Election Systems”.