2022-04-17

West Bank

West Bank / Core Program / position paper

Musawa’s Monitoring Report on the Second Phase of the Local Elections
 

The Central Elections Commission is required to form a professional investigation committee to perform accountability and draw lessons, and the electoral lists and parties are required to realize the legal and ethical implications of violating the electoral code of conduct, especially that previous serious violations were not overlooked despite their occurrence in the first stage, in addition to the inadequacy in the performance of the Central Elections Commission staff, the blatant violation of the electoral code of honor, and the crimes affecting societal security, and the integrity and transparency of elections.

Within the framework of mentoring the second phase of the local elections (the phase of electoral silence, polling and counting), the Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession “Musawa” implemented, in its capacity as an independent civil monitoring body accredited by the Central Elections Commission, four participatory training sessions in Ramallah and Nablus on 23.03.2022, and in Bethlehem and Jenin on 24.03.2022, that were supported by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The training sessions that were held in Ramallah, Nablus, and Bethlehem targeted members of Musawa’s monitoring team, whereas the training in Jenin targeted the team members of Al-Majd Center for Community Development according to the request of the Center. Moreover, under the framework of a memorandum of understanding and cooperation between Musawa and Al-Majd Center for Community Development, the training session aimed at raising the capabilities of the monitoring team to monitor the polling and counting processes, understanding the extent of commitment to the electoral silence day and its determinants, discussing the rights and duties of the observer and the difference between those and the rights and duties of the electoral list agents, examining the mechanisms of preparing the monitoring report and communicating with the team's administration and with the Central Elections Commission to address any violations or breaches as soon as possible, besides discussing the contents and mechanisms of preparing the monitoring report. The sessions also aimed at promoting the fruitful cooperation with the staff of the Central Elections Commission and the partnership with local observers in accordance with the rules of conduct of observers, in order to achieve the desired goal from the independent social monitoring of the elections.

Musawa’s monitoring team included 69 observers and began its duties as of the morning of the electoral silence day 25.3.2022 until the evening of 26.3.2022 (the end of the polling and counting process) and the announcement of the preliminary results of the second phase of the local elections.

The team members monitored 45 polling stations in all Northern Governorates “The West Bank”: Beit Sahour (2), Beit Jala (2), Jenin (4), Atara (1), Hebron (2), Sa`ir (1), Dura (2) ), Beit Ummar (1), As-Samu` (1), Yatta (1), Halhul (1), Ethna (1), Ramallah (5), Al-Bireh (2), Beitunia (2), Birzeit (1), Bani Zeid Al Gharbia (1), Atara (1), Jericho (1), Qalqilya (1), Jerusalem/ Bethany (Al-Eizariya) (3), Salfit (1), Tammun (1), Tulkarm (2), Nablus (5)

 The team included in its membership lawyers, media professionals, law students, and university graduates from the faculties of education, political science, business administration and public relations, as well as a dentist and the legal monitoring officer at Musawa. Each observer documented the violations they observed and the actions taken within the limits of the observer’s competences according to the law, in written reports that are submitted to Musawa’s administration with any relevant proof attached thereto (the observers’ reports are kept at Musawa).

Musawa’s administration supervised the performance of its monitoring team hour by hour from the beginning of the electoral silence until the announcement of the results. Musawa’s administration was also in direct contact with the Central Elections Commission, where it submitted its observers' remarks to the Commission, the thing that contributed to limiting and addressing some violations in an acceptable manner, noting that sometimes the treatment took longer than it should.

The most prominent violations that affected the stages of voting and counting, and the electoral silence, according to what was monitored and documented by Musawa’s monitoring team were:

1. A widespread violation of the electoral silence and the continuation of electoral electioneering until the hour of the counting by various promotional means, including social media. The use of vehicles carrying loudspeakers, slogans, banners, posters and uniforms belonging to electoral lists and bearing their names and slogans throughout the voting phase and their entry into the polling centers. The distribution of cards of lists and candidates inside the polling centers and in front of the squares, entrances, and corridors of polling centers and even in the polling centers themselves, by women, children, and youth. Addressing voters loudly inside the polling centers and asking them to put signs on specific electoral lists. Putting up advertising banners and slogans and displaying them inside the polling centers, using children in electioneering, distributing list cards in front of the centers, and wearing hats bearing the slogans of the lists and their numbers inside the polling centers. It is noteworthy that the Central Elections Commission and its staff did not use their authority to refer the perpetrators of the electoral campaign offense to the Public Prosecution and did not take the necessary measures to confront them despite committing the same electioneering violations that occurred in the first stage of local elections. Instead of reducing intensity of such violations, their frequency and forms varied and the number of their perpetrators increased in the second stage of the local elections and we can assert that this kind of violation spread to all polling centers that the Musawa team monitored.

2. Banning and obstructing observers in a significant number of polling centers on the pretext that they carry old monitoring cards. (Ramallah Secondary Girls School as an example)

3. Setting up tents in front of polling centers for electoral lists bearing their slogans, where papers were distributed with their names and the names of their candidates.

4. The presence of large numbers of supporters of electoral lists inside the polling center yards and in front of their entrances.

5. The presence of candidates besides list agents who follow the same electoral list inside the polling centers together, and likewise the absence of electoral list agents and candidates from polling centers (Ramallah Secondary Boys School and Industrial Islamic Orphanage School in Bethany)

6. Polling stopped at Jaba’ Center for several hours, and polling was extended for two hours, which is less than the suspension period (less than half the period).

7. Preventing observers from writing or possessing papers and pens, and claiming that there is a circular to that effect. (Industrial Islamic Orphanage School in Bethany as an example)

8. The staff of the Elections Commission refused to allow two female citizens who came from the elderly women's center to vote and participate in the elections, on the pretext that none of their first-degree relatives was not present with them. (Ramallah Secondary Girls School)

9. The names of elderly and handicapped voters were mentioned in the second floor of polling centers, which is separated by a long staircase from the first floor, and thus prevented them from voting. (Qalqilya)

10. Preventing observers from entering the polling centers or its stations. (Mahmoud Al-Hamshari Girls School) Station No. 2

11. Young men toured the polling center of Al Buhtori School in Jericho wearing long shirts bearing the logo and the name of one of the lists, and they were present for a long time and wandered inside the polling center yards and in the corridors of polling centers and inside some of them.

12. One of the local observers documented that the director of the Rafidia Girls School Center in Nablus stood with candidates at the door of Station No. 2 and that they influenced the voters by talking to them collectively at the station’s door. Moreover, the director of the center used to threaten the observer to withdraw her control card if she filed a complaint or reported that incident in her monitoring report. "Musawa" contacted the Central Elections Commission, requesting that the center's director (Rima Al-Zagha) be replaced immediately, but the commission did not respond to the request.

13.  Negligence in placing the electoral ink, its position or its quantity in many polling centers, either by not placing it at all, or by placing it on other than the left index finger, or by placing it in a simple and unnoticeable manner, or by placing it after placing the ballot paper in the box and not simultaneously with it.

14. Violations of the mechanism of placing the ballot paper, such as the ballot box clerk placing the paper in place of the voter, or placing it unfolded, or placing it simultaneously with the voters' public declaration of the name of the list they have chosen, which prejudices the principle of election secrecy.

15. The staff of the Elections Commission in Hebron refused the entry of local observers to the headquarters of the Hebron municipality, which prevented them from monitoring the process of vote gathering in polling centers.

16. Shooting at a banner bearing the names of one of the electoral lists in Ramallah, and the supporters of losing lists besieging and attacking the headquarters of one of the winning lists in Jericho, which led to a modest security intervention at the beginning of the attack, which included trapping two hundred people inside the headquarters. Even more assaulting a property belonging to members of the winning lists in Tulkarm and in Beitunia, where shooting was witnessed during the polling and counting processes. Furthermore, one of the winning lists in Hebron claimed that its supporters were subjected to repression by security authorities while they were organizing a demonstration to express the victory of their list, and the security services, in turn, justified its intervention as being against raising flags of political parties. Shooting was also used in front of the polling center of Al Haj Mazoz Al Masri Secondary School for Girls in Nablus. In like manner, shooting and assault with batons were witnessed between the winning lists following a dispute about the distribution of positions in the elected council in Beit Jala, in addition to shooting the house of a candidate whose list won four seats and who was the former Mayor of Bethlehem.

Musawa points out at the gravity of such a violation and its danger to societal security, which requires parties and electoral lists to strictly adhere to the electoral code of honor and to take organizational and legal measures to ensure accountability and prosecution of perpetrators.

17. Photocopying and storing the ballot papers, which led to their preservation, including those that were erased when the photocopy was discovered, as the erasure process did not include erasing them from the recycle bin. This violation was repeated in all polling stations and was accompanied by the circulation of voters for the use of electoral money by some electoral lists. A sum of around 100 and 200 shekels was paid to each voter who proves that s/he voted for a certain list or did not vote for competing lists. Despite the widespread circulation of news about the use of money and the electoral crime it constitutes, the Central Elections Commission did not announce the action it took in this case, despite the fact that this circulation was accompanied by publishing pictures of ballot papers and others of supporters of lists carrying clearly visible sums of money in their hands. Musawa seriously considers the use of money to influence the will of the voters, which calls for taking all measures to ascertain the occurrence of the crime and the hold its perpetrators accountable, to prevent its recurrence later, and to combat the “buy off approach” being a negative indicator of the integrity and transparency of the elections.

18. Musawa documented a circular issued to the local government directorates stating the establishment of vaccination points against the Corona virus in the polling stations. Musawa contacted the Central Elections Commission, requesting to cancel this procedure because it violates the law and has a negative impact on the voting process. The Central Elections Commission responded to the request of Musawa, which prompted the party that issued the circular to cancel it. The Electoral Commission also issued a statement to that effect based on Musawa's request.

19. In view of the low participation rates, the election commission staff at the Beit Jala polling center left the polling room and the ballot box.

20. Voters in Bethany posted pictures of their ballot papers on their Facebook accounts.

21. Several violations marred the polling of illiterates either by not verifying the identity of the escort, claiming illiteracy in contrast to reality, or not falling under the umbrella of first and second degree kinship, or not filling out the form for illiterate polling. It was also noted that the elderly use one or more facilities in the voting process without being illiterate

22. Problems in the process of proving the voter’s identity, as many documents were adopted for the purposes of enabling the voter to cast his/her vote, such as an American passport, a driver’s license, an electronic copy of the personal identity or the magnetic card, which enabled some voters to vote more than once, and deprived a number of voters from their right to vote, as some of them were surprised that their name was crossed out from the voters’ register and considered as evidence of having casted their vote, contrary to reality. Voters deliberated about the inadequacy of the process of verifying the identity of the voter by being satisfied with the identity card number without examining the personal picture it contained, which led to people voting for card holders without their personal presence, which falls under the crime of impersonation. (Al-Eizariya Girls School as an example)

23. List agents, candidates, and supporters continued to influence voters by using their relatives to urge them to vote for a list and escorting them to and inside the station door and next to the polling booth, which negatively affects the secrecy of the voting, especially since it happened before the eyes of the commission’s staff. (Beit Ummar Secondary School in Beit Ummar-Hebron, Aziz Shaheen Secondary Girls School in Ramallah, and Qasim Al-Rimawi Secondary Girls School in Bani Zeid as examples).

24. A list representative enters the polling station during the counting process without a capacity that authorizes him to do so, claiming that he is a list representative and wishes to greet its agent. (Beituniya Boys Secondary School, Station No. 3)

25. A member of the Central Elections Commission’s staff in one of the councils is a member of one of the families that competed for the elections through its own list, and voters discussed discrimination in the procedures of dealing with voters for reasons related to that violation. (Bani Na’im as an example)

26. The husband escorts his wife to the polling hall and asks her to vote for a certain list. The request was made verbally or by sign.

27. Husbands threatened their wives with divorce if they do not vote for the lists their husbands want. Musawa views with extreme gravity such violations that reflect a patriarchal culture and affect the dignity and humanity of women, constitute a manifestation of domestic and electoral violence against women, and negatively affect the secrecy of the elections, which Musawa considers as a crime whose perpetrator must be held accountable. (The Rafidia Girls School Center, Nablus is an example).

28. A female voter, after she entered the polling station and arrived at the polling booth, asked the Commission’s employee to allow her to go out for a few seconds to ask the agent of one of the lists for the name of his list. The aforementioned representative said to her aloud, put the sign next to the list No. 1. (Al 'Attara Basic Mixed School as an example)

29. Failure to open the gate of the road designated for handicapped persons (Martyr Farhat Hashad Secondary Boys School in Jenin as an example), which led to the deprivation of a handicapped person from casting his vote. Some centers designated straight yet long and tiring paths for handicapped persons, which led some of them to seek the help of others to pass through the stairs instead of taking the long lane. (Expatriates Elementary Mixed School in Al-Bireh as an example)

30. A voter put a paper on which accounts for his work are registered instead of the ballot paper, which indicates the poor performance of the Central Election Commission’s staff and indicates the circulation of official election papers outside the polling stations. (Martyr Farhat Hashad Secondary Boys School in Jenin as an example).

31. A station official enumerates what he called the advantages of a particular electoral list more than once, into the ears of voters, agents, and observers. (Martyr Farhat Hashad Secondary Boys School in Jenin is an example)

32. An armed voter entered to the polling station, and an escort of a voter entered with his weapon on his side in front of the Commission's staff, agents and observers. (Martyr Farhat Hashad Secondary Boys School in Jenin is an example)

33. A voter quarreled with the Commission's staff over his desire to vote in his son's stead. The staff had to seek the help of the police to get him out of the polling station. (Martyr Farhat Hashad Secondary Boys School in Jenin is an example)

34. Electricity was cut off in the Expatriates School Center in Al-Bireh several times due to the use of electric heaters, which led to increased pressure on the use of electricity. Many voters complained about changing their polling place from the Expatriate School to other centers such as the Al-Am’ari Refugee Camp School without their prior knowledge, which affected the voter turnout negatively. Meanwhile, voters were not allowed to register their families in different centers and even different local councils.

35. Cold weather conditions were not taken into consideration in most of the polling stations. One of Musawa’s observers had to bring a heater from her home.

36. Security men entered the corridors of polling stations and stood in front of them while carrying their weapons. (Halhoul Secondary School for Boys)

37. Preventing observers from moving between polling stations. Some observers complained about the ill-treatment of some election staff towards them. (Rafidia Girls School as example)

38. Distributing ballot papers similar to official ballot papers bearing the name of one of the lists with check mark next to the lists, and distributing them to voters in front of polling stations such as Ibn Rushd Center in Hebron and the Industrial Islamic Orphanage School in Bethany.

39. Candidates accompanied the voters until they reached the polling booth. One of the voters casted a vote instead of a prisoner using his ID photo at Al-Eizariya Girls School.

40. Observers and agents said that they were prevented from entering the stations at the Hamshari School in Tulkarm.

41. Some companions of people with disabilities and the elderly used to spontaneously elect on their behalf without being asked in the Nizamiyeh Yatta Girls Elementary School and at the Salfit Secondary Boys School.

42. A voter and his daughter attended to cast their votes at Salfit Secondary Boys School. The father stayed with his daughter after casting his vote and saw the list that she elected.

43. Police personnel take voter IDs and check them at the door of the Shepherds' High School polling station in Beit Sahour.

44. Voters assigned their children to place a checkmark next to the list for which they wish to vote. (Yosef Al Khatib School for Girls and Al-Azariya Secondary Girls School) However, the commission's staff thwarted the attempt.

45. Observers complained about the lack of cooperation of the Elections Commission’s staff in the center of the Shepherds' High School in Beit Sahour, Al Majida Wassila Secondary Girls School in Birzeit and the Rafidia Girls School in Nablus.

46. ​​A voter claimed that his mother is blind and elected on her behalf, and the mother greeted an observer sitting at the station when she saw him. (Rafidia Girls School, Nablus, for example)

47. Inconsistency in the position of placing the electoral ink in the Rafidia Girls School in Nablus. It was once placed on the right hand, and once on the thumb, and several times after placing the ballot paper in the box. Voters at the same center declared the names of the lists for which they wish to vote aloud in front of the ballot box.

48. A representative of an electoral list voted for his mother in the Expatriates’ Basic School in Al-Bireh.

49. A voter impersonated his brother and tried to cast his vote at Tammoun High School, but the Commission’s employee thwarted his attempt. Another voter rioted, claiming that his mother elected a list by mistake in an effort to find out which list she elected. The station employee damaged the ballot paper and provided the mother with an alternative paper.

50. Voters used their ID photos on their mobile devices to prove their identity and cast their votes at Al-Nizamiyeh Yatta Girls Elementary School, and a voter used his US passport to cast his vote at Al-Bireh Secondary Girls School. Another voter registered at the same center casted his vote without holding his ID and only provided the Commission’s employee with its number.

51. At one of the stations of the Future School Center in Ramallah, the null papers were not counted during the sorting process.

52. There are no signs indicating the location of the polling stations at Jamal Abdel Nasser Secondary Girls School in Nablus.

53. A difference in the names of two voters between the personal identity and the electoral register in the Al-Samou' Basic Boys School in Hebron.

54. A local observer was campaigning for one of the electoral lists at Ibn Rushd Elementary School for Boys in Hebron. A local observer dipped her finger in the ink without having had elected in the Beituniya Boys Secondary School. A local observer in the same center interfered in the electoral process with the guidance of a voter on the pretext that she is his relative. Voters were provided with electoral numbers based on driving licenses and magnetic cards at the same center. The center witnessed shooting during the sorting process.

55. An employee of the Central Elections Commission staff at the Yasser Arafat School in Ya’bad used to prepare the ballot papers and take them out of the notebooks before the voters’ arrival to the center. The aforementioned employee justified this by saying that he does not stamp the papers and in the case of the absence of a voter, the paper would be considered invalid.

56. One of the observers was prevented from monitoring in one of the stations of the Halima al Khraisha Secondary Girls School in Tulkarm and was taken out of the station.

57. Armed security forces dressed in civilian clothes entered the polling station of Halhul Secondary Boys School and Beituniya Girls Elementary School.

58. A voter who claims to have discovered his name crossed out from the voters’ register which suggests that he has already elected, whereas he denied having had voted and showed that there was no electoral ink on his finger. (Al-Eizariya Girls School as an example)

59. Radio Nablus published two records of electoral station results issued on official papers by the Central Elections Commission. The numbers contained therein contradicted one another.

In addition to these essential observations, Musawa’s monitoring team documented the use of official vehicles in favor of electoral lists themselves (Jericho is an example), and members of the security forces’ violation of the duty of impartiality and their direct interference in the selection of an elected mayor and his deputy (Bethlehem as an example).

"Musawa" highlights that the violations discussed in its monitoring report dealing with the first phase of the local elections continued and expanded in the second phase of the local elections. Among the violations was the use of weapons and shooting during the polling and counting processes and after the results were issued and their continuation even after the convention of the elected councils in their first session, in addition to the security services’ presence in civilian clothes and weapons. Musawa has also reported a noticeable expansion in the use of advertising means in front of and inside polling centers and stations, as well as a continuation of violating the rules of law with regards to the election of illiterates, and the noticeable influencing of the voters by their relatives and companions, to the extent that husbands threatened to divorce their wives and others rioted for the purposes of examining the ballot papers of their relatives, in addition to the widespread circulation of talks about electoral bribery and the use of money, and the keenness of voters to keep the photos of their ballot papers in the memory of their mobile devices despite having deleted them, besides the expansion of impersonation of others and the use of other people’s identity cards. The performance of some members of the Central Elections Commission staff was poor, and they showed superior attitude towards some observers and prevented them from monitoring the process of counting, as was the case in preventing observers from entering the Hebron municipality building, to which the records were transferred for the purposes of collecting and checking them. It was a legal duty to let the observers attend that process and choose a staff including members of a family competing in the elections to oversee the polling and counting processes which negatively affected their impartiality in performing their duty. Musawa believes that the Central Elections Commission should conduct a professional and transparent investigation concerning the violations that were attributed to its staff overseeing the polling centers and stations. The Center also believes that the parties and lists should respect the code of honor they signed, especially that most of the violations are attributed to them. Furthermore, Musawa warns against resorting to violence that accompanied the second phase of the municipal elections, as this represents a dangerous indicator threatening civil peace and undermining the integrity and transparency of the elections, including the lack of respect of their results, which in turn affects the citizens adherence to the regularity of conducting elections and their right to hold municipal, presidential and legislative elections in Gaza.