Civic Registration for Direct Elections to the PNC

Palestinians have launched a website dedicated for the civic registration drive for elections to the Palestinian National Council (PNC), the supreme legislative body of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).

According to the website, only 40 percent of the Palestinian people are eligible to vote and are registered. The purpose of this initiative is to facilitate the process of registering the remaining 60 percent of Palestinians. The registration period will start by the spring of 2012, now begins the preparatory phase (November 2011 – May 2012) where organizers aim to raise public awareness and provide registration training along with logistical preparation of local registration drives.

This initiative aims to make it possible, for the first time, for every Palestinian, including refugees in the diaspora, to register for elections to the Palestinian National Council (PNC), and to participate in direct elections to the PLO parliament that represents the entirety of the Palestinian people. The currently registered voters are mostly Palestinians in the 1967 occupied Palestinian homeland, largely excluding Jerusalem.

The public announcment further says:

It is understood that a directly elected democratic PNC is the most effective means to affirm and advance Palestinian rights, end internal division, restore and strengthen our national liberation movement, and reactivate the PLO on a democratic basis so that it can represent the will of the entire Palestinian people. Creating a comprehensive register of Palestinian voters is the necessary first step, and the responsibility of all Palestinians to ensure, because Palestinians outside the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip have never had a voter register for PNC elections. Those inside the West Bank and Gaza are registered for PLC elections, and the PLC is incorporated into the PNC, representing that part of the Palestinian people in it.

Palestinians have been calling for elections for the Palestinian National Council for years; the call has intensified especially in early March of this year. Palestinians see the PNC elections as a way which guarantees representation of all Palestinians regardless of their location, and ensures a change of the current election system and the mechanisms for decision-making and accountability.

You can check the website for further details and background information on the PNC direct elections call.

http://palestiniansregister.org/