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| PCHR Palestinian Centre for Human Rights PRESS RELEASE |
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Ref: 20/2005
Date: 17 January 2005
Time: 09:30 GMT
PCHR Prepares for Monitoring Elections of Local Councils in the Gaza Strip
PCHR has recently started preparations to monitor elections of 10 local councils in the Gaza Strip, which will be held on Thursday, 27 January 2005.
Holding these elections comes in the context of the first stage of elections of local councils in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip according to a three-stage plan prepared by the Higher Committee for Local Elections. This first stage began in 26 communities the West Bank on Thursday, 23 December 2004, and will be completed in 10 communities in the Gaza Strip: Beit Hanoun; al-Zahra’a; a;-Zawaida; al-Musaddar; al-Maghazi; Deir al-Balah; Khuza’a; Bani Suhaila; al-Shouka; and al-Nasser. In the elections of local councils of these communities, 478 candidates, including 82 women, will compete for 118 seats. The election campaign was opened on Thursday, 13 January 2005, and will end on Wednesday morning, 26 January 2005.
PCHR will start a training program for monitoring these elections. For this purpose, PCHR will recruit 70 of its observers, who participated in monitoring the Palestinian presidential election on 9 January 2005 in cooperation with 26 NGOs.
PCHR asked that the position that the elections of local councils should be held in stages be reconsidered. It is an unnecessary step, they should all have been held together and like the Presidential elections in an appropriate Palestinian political environment
Holding elections for local councils is very important, as it marks the first time that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip will to be able to elect their local councils.
PCHR hopes that these elections will be free and fair, and asserts that it will participate in monitoring these elections. PCHR has significant experience in this field as it played an important role in monitoring the Palestinian presidential election held recently, in its capacity as a local monitoring organization accredited by the Central Election Commission. PCHR also monitored the Palestinian presidential and parliamentary elections of January 1996.
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Public Document
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For more information please call PCHR office in Gaza, Gaza Strip, on +972 8 2824776 – 2825893
PCHR, 29 Omer El Mukhtar St., El Remal, PO Box 1328 Gaza, Gaza Strip. E-mail: pchr@pchrgaza.org, Webpage http://www.pchrgaza.org
