Pal-Think airs a radio episode on the legal consequences of cancelling the elections

Mr Bahjat al-Helou, awareness and training coordinator at the Independent Commission for Human Rights, affirmed that the decree issuing the Palestinian elections, which came out at the beginning of this year, stirred a condition of wakefulness and hope in Palestinian society for establishing the Legislative Council, which is counted the most important instrument of oversight and accountability.

This came during a radio episode titled “The legal repercussions consequent on cancelling the elections”, during the programme “Electoral Issues”, broadcast on Zaman radio within the project “Strengthening civil society's role in supporting the Palestinian elections”, implemented by Pal-Think for Strategic Studies and funded by the Government of Canada. It aims to empower civil society's role, activate the role of youth, and strengthen their political and communal participation in order to support the Palestinian elections.

Al-Helou said: “Most of our problems during the past 15 years were because of the absence of accountability and oversight. And all the violations of human rights — such as the prevention of movement and travel, the discourse of hatred, and the violations of general human rights in peaceful assembly and others…

He added: “The elections came to put an end to this suffering. We as human rights institutions would advise the electoral lists to make human rights an important consideration in forming their lists. The Elections Commission worked with great professionalism, and a court for elections cases was established; then the programmes and plans of civil society organisations sprang forth to train and monitor the participation of women and youth in the electoral blocs — despite our objection to the law on the candidacy age for youth and the representation rate for women, yet this came as a result of national accord, and it was the first time after long years of the condition of fragmentation and internal division.

The rights advocate pointed out that any sound, healthy society that respects human rights must respect the mechanisms of oversight within society. And the most important oversight instrument in our society is the regular judiciary.

He noted the condition of loss and despair that accompanied the issuing of the presidential decree of postponement — pointing out that the political, partisan, and security considerations in the Palestinian scene prevailed over the considerations of law and human rights.

Al-Helou continued: “It was among the work of the elected Legislative Council to unify all the decree-laws. But as a Palestinian society it is required of us not to lose hope, and this radio episode is part of preserving its momentum; and all the projects that still demand oversight over empowerment and discrimination come within the frame of preserving the elections' momentum.”

What did we lose by the elections' postponement? Al-Helou answers: “First, we lost the right to political participation, the preservation of citizens' dignity and equality, the transition from weakness to strength, the transition from chaos to planning, from futility to seriousness, and from love to hatred, and the role of the participation of women and youth with disability. We lost the efforts of ending the division to the continuation of the division. And we lost national unity, and thereby the fragmentation of the political system continues.” He noted that as soon as the postponement decree was issued, the language and discourse of hatred escalated.

Al-Helou affirmed in his talk the people's right to know the mechanisms of oversight over the Legislative Council. The absence of that becomes an entry point for corruption, for the absence of the oversight mechanism of the Legislative Council, which has three functions: enacting laws, overseeing and holding to account the government's performance, and ratifying the general budget. The Council in practice now neither enacts laws nor ratifies the budget. Thereby we have two problems: the first corruption, and the second that we come to have a police state. Accordingly, the absence of the Legislative Council led to the absence of our economic and social security and our right to accountability and holding to account.

The rights advocate pointed out that 60% of the Palestinian people are under the age of thirty. They are a young society, and deprived for 15 whole years of their right to the legislative, presidential, municipal, and student-council elections.

Al-Helou said: “Among our most prominent disappointments because of the elections' postponement is the treatment of some pending files, such as the families of the martyrs of 2014, and also the file of the employees of 2005 — they were supposed to be solved — and the issue of the violations related to passports, not to mention the disabling of the road-accidents compensation fund in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the division.”

The rights advocate affirmed that the cause of the Palestinian people's suffering is the occupation and the political considerations that arose after the division.

He affirmed at the end of his talk that the situation now needs a national plan after the elections' postponement. We must press the Palestinian leadership to issue a new date for the elections, and to withdraw the decree freezing the syndicate elections, which was issued before the elections decree — the youth are now effective members in the associations. And the amendments related to the associations' work must be cancelled, and the elections at the level of the universities and municipalities encouraged.

He concluded by saying: “I call for hope to remain in the souls of the youth.”

The designations used and the presentation of materials in this programme entail no expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Government of Canada