 | | Bethlehem Meeting Marks First of 16 to be Held Across Palestine BETHLEHEM, PALESTINE ? Yesterday, candidates from the Bethlehem area convened at the Palestinian Women?s Union to discuss a charter of guidelines for the upcoming legislative electoral campaign. The charter, drafted earlier this year by the Palestinian Central Election Commission together with the political parties and the Arab Thought Forum, establishes general rules for candidate and party conduct. |
Representatives from each political party endorsed the charter and agreed to abide by the established guidelines. The meeting was moderated by Nassar Ibrahim of the Alternative Information Center and chaired by Adnan Shuker of the Arab Thought Forum. The Bethlehem meeting represents the first in a series of sessions set to be held in all 16 Palestinian electoral districts.
The charter contains 25 separate conditions intended to uphold election transparency and ensure proper campaign conduct. The candidates who signed the document agreed that their campaigns will remain free of personal attacks, voter intimidation, and foreign funding. The charter also requires commitment to the laws of the Central Election Commission and establishes a campaign spending limit.
Despite relatively broad acceptance of the charter in Bethlehem, a number of independent candidates raised concerns about the drafting process. Independents did not have the opportunity to participate in the formulation of the guidelines, a dynamic they fear will place them at a disadvantage during the campaign. In response, party representatives argued that when participants drafted the charter it was unclear which independent candidates were running for office.
The meeting precedes what is likely to be a heated electoral campaign. Given Fatah?s waning power, evidenced by its substantial losses throughout Palestine during the recent municipal elections, competing parties sense an opportunity to pick up seats in the legislature. In an interview following the meeting, Hasan Abdu Jawad, a Bethlehem district candidate from Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) described his party?s prospects: ?the PFLP has a good chance to gain power in the upcoming elections?People are tired of corruption. The situation is like a coin, on the one side there is occupation and on the other corruption, but it?s the same coin.? For Suleiman Abu Muferreh, a Fatah candidate, the internal controversy over the party?s list, not corruption or the appeal of alternative parties has precipitated its decline in power. ?We are to blame?Our own divisions have created more chances for Hamas.?
|
