Ref:
47/2010

The
Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) welcomes the decision taken by the
Palestinian government in the West Bank to cancel local elections, which were
scheduled to be held in the West Bank on 17 July 2010.  In spite of the information available to PCHR
about the motives that led to this decision, particularly the differences among
candidates of Fatah movement, PCHR believes that the cancellation of local
elections respond principally to increasing demands to provide necessary
atmosphere to ensure fair elections that reflect the electorate’s will, and by
extension ending the current state of political fragmentation and reaching a
national agreement on the whole electoral process. 

In its
session held on 10 June 2010, the Council of Ministers in Ramallah issued a
decision (#01/52A/M.O./S.F) of 2010 annulling two previous decisions it had issued
– (#01/36/13/M.O./S.F) of 2010 concerning elections of local councils and
(#02/46/13/M.O./S.F) concerning the timing of elections of local councils – and
declared that a new date for elections would be decided later.  According to the earlier two decisions,
elections of the local councils were scheduled to be held on 17 July 2010, and
the Central Elections Commission had completed preparations to implement these
decisions and to organize elections on the scheduled date.

PCHR had
criticized organizing such local elections under the current state of political
fragmentation and the deteriorating situation of public freedoms of human
rights and due to the lack  of an
appropriate atmosphere to hold fair and transparent elections.  PCHR expressed this position in a paper
issued on 18 February 2010.[1]

PCHR has
followed closely developments in the West Bank during the electoral process,
including media reports about the failure of Palestine Liberation Organization
factions to agree to run the elections in a united bloc as well as the
differences among candidates of Fatah movement in electoral constituencies,
especially in Nablus, the largest local council in the West Bank, which
constituted a major motive to cancel the elections. 

In light
of the new decision to cancel local elections and determine another date for
them, PCHR:

1- Welcomes this decision, in spite
of full awareness of the reasons which underlie it, and the developments that
accompanied the electoral process in the West Bank recently;

2- Reiterates its full support for
elections and the need to hold both general and local elections—while stressing
that elections should be held only under appropriate conditions, including
ensuring public freedoms, preventing human rights violations, and ensuring that
elections are fair, transparent and reflective of the electorate’s will;

3- Emphasizes that the current state
of political fragmentation, the lack of a national agreement on the issue of
elections (presidential, legislative and local) and the unprecedented
deterioration of the human rights situation can never lead to free, fair and
transparent elections;

4- Denounces the position of a
number of political factions in the West Bank which call for holding elections
on the previously scheduled date and for withdrawing the new decision, or for
holding the elections as soon as possible, citing the current state of
political fragmentation and the lack of a national consensus; PCHR believes
that such a position expresses narrow factional interests.