GOLD Report I - UCLG

225me the reluctance of party managers toaccept women, but in all fairness, such maleintransigence is hardly unique to the MiddleEast.Steps towards the participation of women.Faced with a glaring lack of femalerepresentation in local and national politicallife, several strategies have beenput in place. The quota system, which isapplied in Palestine, reserves a minimumof two seats per council forwomen 45 . Jordan and Kuwait have chosenthe direct nomination of one womanper council. At the same time, importantcampaigns in favor of women have beenlaunched in Jordan and Syria.Thus, municipal councils throughout theregion face enormous difficulties, leading,in some instances, to their resignation,as in Jordan; in other countries,an even larger number of councils haverenounced any form of concrete action.IV.5. Local elections as an ideologicaland community platformIf it is necessary and healthy that acountry’s political life should rest onnationally constituted parties, it is notdesirable that national issues overridelocal concerns. Municipal elections are,after all, intended to create an efficientlocal authority management.Lebanon provides an illustrative example.Although the number of nationalparties is negligible, elections are welland truly fought on religious communityissues which are national in scope.A curious development is the way inwhich local elections can become aforum for banned national parties or factions.Because local elections are consideredless of a threat to the centralgovernment, they may not be as tightlycontrolled as national elections. Localelections therefore present an opportunityfor disapproved or illegal partiesand ideologies to appear on the ballot,overwhelming local issues with far morepotent national matters. Such was thecase in Palestine when Hamas triumphed,and in Saudi Arabia when Shiitesof the Eastern Province boasted ofhaving won the election in their regionalstronghold. Similarly, the victory of Hezbollahin South Lebanon used local electionsto effect a national change, and inIslamic Republic of Iran the 2003 municipalelections in Tehran led to thereturn of the conservatives, and particularlyof President Ahmadinejad, the city’smayor. Ironically, the 2006 municipalelections rejected his policies throughoutthe country, with the populationgoing to the polls on a massive scale inorder to vote for the opposition. Thiswas also the situation in Bahrain, whichwas the scene of a very strong Shiiteupsurge in November 2006.IV.6. The role of the security factorand the delicate situationof the governmentsThe religious community issue. Manycountries are currently the scene ofdeep-seated tensions, some attributableto the merging of religion and politics,others to centuries-old feuds betweenIslam’s Shiite and Sunni communities.The latter is especially important wherethe Sunni have held power for a longtime in spite of the presence of a strongShiite minority, or indeed a majority, asin Lebanon, Iraq, and Bahrain. SaudiArabia’s government contends with aShiite community that could deliver a20% turnout – not the 5-15% which isgenerally reported. The central governmentthere exercised strong controlduring the election in the Eastern Provincewhere the Shiites are a clearmajority, and where, it is useful to note,there are important oil-fields. Likewise,the King of Bahrain faces the risk of destabilizationby the Shiite majority there,as the results of the recent parliamentaryelections showed.45. There are 15 seatsin the cities, 13 inmedium-sized townsand 8 in small townsaccording to theelectoral law of1996, amended in2005.