Pal-Think and the Central Elections Commission sign a partnership for «Towards a society more aware of its electoral rights»

Pal-Think for Strategic Studies signed a partnership agreement with the Central Elections Commission to implement the project “Toward a society more aware of its electoral rights”, to be implemented in cooperation with the Central Elections Commission within the project “Partnership with civil-society institutions” funded by the European Union.

The Elections Commission was represented at the signing ceremony by Mr Jamil al-Khalidi, “regional director of the Central Elections Commission in the Gaza Strip”, while Pal-Think was represented by Mr Omar Shaban, “director of Pal-Think”.

The project aims to strengthen society members' awareness of electoral issues and topics and encourage them to take part in any coming electoral process, through a set of activities to be carried out within the project: carrying out 35 awareness meetings during which the target group is made aware of “the Palestinian electoral system; the stages of the electoral process and the procedures of each stage; the mechanism of oversight of the electoral process; the conditions of candidacy and election; how the electoral process is free and fair; the mechanism of encouraging the local community to take part in the electoral process; the importance of political participation and the principles of democracy; and acquaintance with the Central Elections Commission”; designing and printing a brochure on the Palestinian electoral system; carrying out 8 radio episodes; producing and designing awareness videos; painting a mural; in addition to launching a lobbying and advocacy campaign aiming to draw the attention of society with all its components to the importance of hastening the holding of free and fair elections and the importance of that for all walks of life.

For his part, Mr Omar Shaban affirmed the importance of this partnership, which will contribute to raising society's awareness of electoral issues and topics, especially in the marginalised areas; he likewise thanked the Central Elections Commission for this partnership, which should be built upon afterwards and developed in what serves the local community.

Meanwhile Mr Jamil al-Khalidi showed that the signing of this agreement comes within a set of projects to be implemented in cooperation with civil-society institutions with the aim of increasing citizens' participation in the elections — affirming the importance of awareness-raising, education, and raising the level of awareness among all of society's groups on electoral issues and topics.