Middle East Monitor / March 17, 2021
The Palestinian factions will adopt a code of conduct for the upcoming elections, Fatah Secretary-General Jibril Rajoub said on Tuesday. The Fatah official told Palestine Voice that the code of conduct will regulate the election process.
“All of the Palestinian factions and people will respect the code,” he said. “There must not be any cause for tension or violence during the parliamentary election, the first of the polls scheduled for this year.”
Representatives of the factions started their first round of national meetings in Cairo on Monday. The two-day discussions will cover the parliamentary and Palestinian National Council elections.
Rajoub said that the discussions will seek to identify possible obstacles which could derail the democratic process. “We have adopted this process in order to end the internal division, build a partnership and renew the political system through the ballot box,” he explained.
The factions, said Rajoub, will also see how the Palestinian National Council election can be held wherever it is possible within and outside Palestine. They also will discuss the number of council members. In January, the Secretary of the PNC, Mohammad Subaih, announced that the factions had agreed to reduce the number of members from 765 to 350.
The last Palestinian parliamentary election was held in 2006. Hamas won an overwhelming majority, but neither its rival Fatah nor Israel, the Arab countries and the West recognised the result, leading to the internal Palestinian division.
