Voter Education for Local and National
Elections Cycle

Project Summary:

• Duration: (10/03 – 09/04)

• Funding Source: Dutch Development Cooperation

Educational activities was undertaken to encourage democratic development workers, civil society actors, local community activists, NGO and CBO workers, union members, women’s, youth and sport club members and even those who are in the religious community to get involved and to register to vote and then cast their ballots in the election because this is the political system that the Palestinian people have embraced and have mandated by the rule of law in the Palestinian Basic Law. The project focused on the fact that this system was chosen by all Palestinians and those who advocated for other systems do not have the support of the Palestinian government or of the rank and file Palestinian people who mandated that government who passed these initial laws, such as the Basic Law. By supporting the election, Palestinians need to understand that they are supporting the rule of law and the political mandate of their elected government.

Educational activities that were conducted through this project will help to point out these concepts to young people and others who have not voted previously or who did vote in the past, but did so without much knowledge or appreciation for the processs of voting in general. By providing solid non-partisan information about the need to be engaged in the process of voting, the process of democracy and the rule of law itself will be strengthened. This fact was placed into the hands of the target group in this project to help ensure a solid majority participate in the upcoming election events.

This project, Voter Education for the pending Local & National Election cycle in the West Bank, focused on the two groups in Palestinian society most in need of democratic promotion: women and youth. (aged between 17-34) This project seeked to identify and focused our attention on local women and youth leaders, community activists, political and religious leaders, as well as civil society organization leaders, NGO and CBO employees and volunteers working in democratic development. These women and youth leaders were best positioned to benefit from and shared the information they will receive through the project activities.

Women and youth are marginalized groups in Palestinian society. The levels of participation of women and young people in local and national government are no where near their representation in the general population. Women are also treated as second-class citizens and are not well represented at the different decision-making levels.

Without consensus on purposes and strategies, the women and youth sectors lack the ability and facilities to articulate the arguments needed to improve their status within their communities. Participation and advocacy are vital to the life of communities. It is a fact that the women and youth sectors do not have the societal respect and support they deserve. Common language to articulate goals and strategies of women’s and youth-related advocacy work is poorly defined in the Palestinian context. When we study this issue, we see a number of facts that point to the need to focus our work in these sectors. This is particularly important regarding election related issues.