Annual Report - Palestinian Center for Human Rights

At the time, PCHR criticized leaving outstanding Gaza Strip communities out of the
stage. The fourth and final stage, which was to include the remaining local councils,
was scheduled to take place before the end of the year. However, on 13 October
2005, Palestinian Minister of Local Government, Khaled El-Qawasmi, announced that
the Cabinet had decided to hold the fourth stage on 15 December 2005 in 44 West
Bank communities and 3 small Gaza Strip communities. The remaining 59
communities were to be postponed to a fifth stage, without setting the date for when
the elections would take place. The fifth stage would include cities such as Gaza
City, Khan Yunis, Jabalya, and Nuseirat.
On 15 December 2005, the fourth stage of local council elections was held in 40
communities. PCHR monitored the elections in the three contested councils in the
Gaza Strip. Monitoring reports indicated that the elections were held in an organized
and peaceful manner. Polling and vote counting processes were fair in all polling
stations. The violations that were registered did not affect the overall integrity of the
elections.
With the end of the fourth stage of local council elections, 265 communities in the
OPT had new councils elected and 59 remained without elections.
Work of the Higher Committee for Local Elections
The Higher Committee for Local Elections (HCLE) is the administrative body that
manages the local council elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Committee
oversaw the four election stages that were held between December 2004 and
December 2005. According to Article 72 of Law #10 of 2005 on local council
elections, “The HCLE conducts all tasks assigned to it by the CEC, as stipulated in
this law, up to the end of December 2005. The CEC conducts these tasks after that
date.” However, the HCLE did not end its functions in this regard at the end of
December 2005, making the excuse that all election stages had not yet been
completed, since one outstanding stage remained to be held. This is a violation of the
law. In addition, the Ministry of Local Government requested amendment of the law
to extend the functioning of the HCLE until completion of the last stage of local
council elections. The PLC passed a law amending Article 72 of Law #5 on local
council elections. The amendment extended the mandate of the HCLE until the
completion of the last stage of local elections. However, this amendment had not
been passed into law by the end of the year.
PCHR looks forward to completing the local council elections without any further
delay in the remaining communities. In addition, the Centre looks forward to an
acceptable resolution of the outstanding issues concerning the local elections in
Rafah, Beit Lahia and El-Bureij. However, it should be noted that Law #5 of 1996,
the legal umbrella for the first two stages of local elections, has now been replaced by
Law #10 of 2005. Thus, the rerun in these communities cannot be held according to
the new law, which adopts proportional representation, nor can they be held according
to the majority system of the old law. To overcome this obstacle, the Centre
recommends a complete rerun of the elections in these areas under the new law, to be
included in the fifth and final stage of local elections.
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