Yesterday, the Elections Monitoring Civil Commission's 318 observers monitored the election and ballot paper counting at the electoral Palestinian districts. The monitoring process included comprehensive field visits conducted by the Commission's Secretariat whose members visited the majority of polling centers and observed the polling, ballot paper count and monitoring process.

The Elections Monitoring Civil Commission's Secretariat convened since yesterday until this morning, Friday 24/12/2004 and concluded the following:

First:
A high percentage of participation rates were recorded of different social and political sectors in the election process, and the percentage of women participation met our expectations.

Second:
The Elections Monitoring Civil Commission praises the total commitment of candidates' representatives and civil observers; they demonstrated a high standard of democratic spirit and played as a significant role model in interactive cooperation between them to the extent that we can be sure that the observation process was comprehensive and never missed any part of the polling or vote count at any stage.

Third:
The Commission also praises the performance of the fine international non governmental team that monitored the polling and vote counting. Tomorrow, the team will issue its statement on their observation process.

Fourth:
The Elections Monitoring Civil Commission praise the Local Elections Higher Commission staff's high professional conduct and we observed that they enjoyed a high level of professional commitment.

Fifth:
The Commission also praise the exceptionally excellent role of the security men who refrained from carrying guns and dealt with the citizens in a civilized and professional manner.


Sixth:
The Commission also appreciates facilitating its observers' work despite the few and minor problems that the observers encountered in some polling centers because the polling centers were not informed of our observation process by the Chairman of the Local Elections Higher Commission.

Seventh:
The Civil Commission has monitored the Israeli intervention in the electoral process and recorded a number of Israeli violations especially by imposing military roadblocks, which hindered and sometimes prevented the movement of electors, candidates and observers. We would like to note that the Howwara roadblock was closed for four hours and the Jericho roadblock hindered the movement of the observers in particular... The Commission estimates that the amount of movement obstruction was 10% compared to last Thursday's events.

Eighth:
The Civil Commission has a large number of comments on the administration and performance of the Elections Higher Commission and they are the following:

1. Inaccuracy of elector registration and civil registration lists. In many cases registered voters didn't find their names in any of these lists.

2. We at the Elections Monitoring Civil Commission did not understand why the Elections Higher Commission did not recognize citizen registration that registered after 3/11/2004 and were not notified of their registration confirmation.

3. Most of polling centers were located in small rooms unsuitable for healthy polling atmosphere.

4. The crowded polling centers sometimes bothered voters.

5. The initial evaluation of the Elections Monitoring Civil Commission of the polling rooms was very poor.

6. The polling rooms didn't provide total privacy.

7. Curtains and sound proof barriers weren't used to separate adjacent polling rooms.

8. In Azoun, we noticed that the polling room was opened and didn't comply with the agreed on international specifications.

9. The election monitors noticed slowness in the polling process.

10. In many centers citizens had to wait outside for more than two hours.

11. Not only the polling rooms were crowded but also the courtyards of the polling centers were also crowded. Consequently, some problems occurred in the case of Yabad.

12. The candidates and their supporters committed a large number of violations as they campaigned inside the polling centers. In addition, children and women were exploited by making them distribute election campaign materials inside and around the polling centers.

13. The staff of the Local Elections Higher Commission and the Election Commissions did not respond to these violations.

Ninth:
Most of voters demonstrated high spirit of democracy and responsibility during the voting process at the polling centers, however, the unjustified chaos took place because Election Higher Commission didn't make the following considerations:

1. Some polling centers had to accommodate more than 600 voters and they did not.

2. The location of three polling stations in the same center that had only a single entrance caused disorder that created the possibility of double voting.

Tenth:
The Elections Monitoring Civil Commission didn't notice any significant role for the political parties, NGOs and syndicate unions in solving problems that took place especially in Yabad and the violation to the illiterate assistance in Kufr Al Labad, Halhul and other places. The Commission registered a number of violations concerning "Political inerrancy".

Eleventh:
The observers of the Commission noticed that the citizens weren't informed on the polling mechanisms before the Election Day. Thus, the citizens had to exercise their vote without any instruction from political parties, NGOs and the Elections Higher Commission; because they didn't hold enough educational events or issue printed literature to educate citizens on the matter.

Twelfth:
The observers of the Commission noticed that the signs "Smoking and holding guns is not allowed" were posted inside the polling stations and not inside the polling centers.

Recommendations:

The Elections Monitoring Civil Commission recommends that the Elections' Central and Higher Commissions to learn from this experience, thus, a number of procedures can be adopted to avoid such violations in the future:

• The international community should pressure Israel into lifting its military roadblocks that not only violate the rights of the Palestinian citizens but also violate all international rules and legislations. These Israeli practices had a clear effect on the electoral process through hindering and obstructing the free movement of the voters, candidates and observers.
   

• The Elections Higher Commission must ensure that the names of all voters are registered in either the voter registration or the civil registration records. The Elections Higher and Central Commissions must agree on the mechanisms of acknowledging the validity of voter registration.
   

• The Elections Higher Commission must reconsider any future plans to hold election rounds in the same centers, as we recommend the Commission must choose more appropriate places to facilitate the voters and provide a healthier environment. The small classrooms can't be considered polling stations and the polling centers can't be located beside main roads where movement is obstructed by traffic jams.
   

• The Elections Monitoring Civil Commission recommends that polling centers only accommodate a maximum of 500 voters, provided that the polling centers include only two chambers and not three.
   

• The Elections Monitoring Civil Commission recommends substituting the polling rooms made of bad-quality paper with sound-proof barriers and curtains to ensure improved privacy during the polling process.
   

• The Elections Monitoring Civil Commission recommends that the staff of the Elections Higher Commission conduct their duties inside and outside the polling stations to prevent candidates from campaigning on the station's premises.
   

• The Elections Monitoring Civil Commission recommends that no employee be posted in the polling centers if he or she has a relative that is a running candidate in the same district.
   

• The Elections Monitoring Civil Commission recommends the Elections Higher Commission to lobby for amending the law regarding political illiteracy as we saw dozens of citizens helping others under the pretext that those were "illiterate". The Commission has a number of suggestions to be presented later on to the relevant committees.
   

• The Elections Monitoring Civil Commission calls on the Local Elections Higher Commission to issue a number of regulations on the "Local Entities Law" so that further violations can be prevented.
   

• Finally, The Elections Monitoring Civil Commission will issue a special report on the vote counting process after fully reviewing all the violations reported by all Commission committees in the different districts and shall seek legal advice and the counseling from Commission observers.

End of the release